Already a snafu....

I am not feeling so hot today! I was sent home from work with a fever! :( I am so disappointed... I was looking forward to going to Zumba with Amanda! I know it's not my fault that I'm sick but hate that I had to cancel. :(

Thank you for all of your welcome back's :) It's good to know I was missed!

Going to go hang out on the couch some more...I guess the only good thing is I will be home for the Biggest Loser tonight! I am kind of obsessed with it! My only wish is that the weigh ins wouldn't take an hour! Whew...

Anyone else watch Biggest Loser? I'm also excited that Grey's Anatomy is starting NEXT
week!!!!

By the way, check out the giveaway on Megan's Munchie's blog for some sweet potato scones!!! Perfect for the upcoming fall weather!

Night all!

Are you there, Blog? It's me, Mandy

Remember me?? JR is SO going to kill me for posting this picture... haha!!! Paybacks, honey.. paybacks!! More on that later ;)

Okay to redeem myself and not get into TOO much trouble... we have much cuter pictures...
I'm done, I swear :)

I can NOT believe it has been almost two weeks since I have blogged! I definitely did not intend for it to be that long. It's been busy (but at the same time, pretty uneventful!

I have also been trying to keep up with everyone's blogs... I'm so behind!

Since I haven't been so great with taking pictures of all of my meals (sorry about that!), I thought I would share with you some food, quotes, pictures or whatever else I've loved the past couple of weeks :)

On the food front...I have tried a couple of new products! Now, when I say "new"... I mean, these are new to me but I'm pretty sure have been around for awhile... and as always, I'm behind in the times :)

I have always loved my Kashi waffles (always will!)... but this week, I thought I'd try out something different. I have seen Van's waffles everywhere... and thought I'd give them a go! I'm really glad I did!

These babies kept me SO full! I have been eating them as a PB&B sandwich... and I LOVE them. But SOMEONE (and by SOMEONE I mean the waffle stealing man who I call my husband) ate my LAST two waffles without asking... so now I have to wait until next week to have them again...sniff, sniff...

And having such a taco craving lately, I picked up these shells from Garden of Eatin'... and paired them with this great recipe from Eating Well's website. I used the recipe to season our ground turkey... we both LOVED the recipe!

That's it for food today! :) More discoveries later this week!

Other things I have loved during my break...

Maddie dressing up in Mommy & Daddy's clothes..

Speaking of Maddie, thank you all so much for your advice on her eating habits! I am mostly trying to stay patient with her as of now. I hope things change soon! I am trying to cut back on how much milk & juice she drinks during the day to see if that's a start! We'll go from there!

On the music front... I have been completely OBSESSED with Colbie Caillat's new album. If you liked her first one... Definitely go check this one out!

What else... hmmm... OH yes! Last week, I found myself with a (rare) hour of free time... and knew that local blogger Amanda worked pretty close to where I was at. We sent a few text messages - and met up at a fav coffee shop... Fido! We got to chat for about an hour... and I had a blast. She's such a sweet girl and so much fun to talk to! We are going to take a Zumba class together tomorrow night (her first class ever!) and do dinner Thursday night, too! How awesome is it that as bloggers we have the opportunity to make new friends we may have somehow never met otherwise?

I love, love, LOVE the Zumba class we are going to. The class is a bit of a drive for me... but SO worth it! The teacher is amazing and so motivating! Her website is here.... you can check out some pictures and videos to see what her class is like :) If you are in town and want to meet up for a class...let me know!

I am going to end this monster of a post here.... but leave you with a cool quote from Chalene Johnson... creator of Turbo Jam videos and Chalene Extreme..."Your weight does not define you. Your character defines you. Good health is essential, not a number on a scale".

Something I have been trying to remind myself of every.single.day!

By the way - is this font color better? Erica, thanks for the suggestion! I actually agreed with you and needed to work on it! Let me know if this is better for everyone :)

Wednesday Woes....and a contest for you AND for me! :)

Ever have one of those days where ALL you want to do is complain?? From the second I woke up, that's me today! I am going to do my best to not be whining this whole post :) We'll see what happens, though... haha

First of all, How did the first day of September treat ya? I swear I feel like it was just last week that I was saying I couldn't believe it was August already... heck, it seems like just yesterday, it was April... I was in VEGAS with JR having an awesome time on my birthday... and now, here we are in September already! But with that comes cooler temperatures...I hope the weather has been as gorgeous for you all as it has been here in Nashville this week!

You guys absolutely made my day yesterday with all of your awesome comments! Thank you so much! It felt good to brag on myself a little bit since I never seem to give myself that kind of credit! :)

And I'm so glad you are all enjoying Lisa's recaps... I am SO, SO proud of her. I thought what better way to start of September than with some motivation from my girl here on the blog!!! Thank you all for your continued support on her journey :)

Okay here we go! "Woe-is-me" numbero uno: I am S-O-R-E from my workouts this week! I mean to sit down, is painful! Although, this I should not be complaining about! I should be thankful I'm working out again!

Workouts this week:

Monday, JR and I did The Firm's Ultimate Fat Burning work out. I consider it more of a cardio work out... but it does have some 4-limb sections... we used 5 lbs weights for these.

Tuesday, we did The Firm's Supercharged Sculpting... which is an all weight lifting video. Man, I forgot how tough those darn dips and tall box climbs can be! We both used a big range of weights depending on the exercise... I used anywhere from 5-12 lbs... below what my old weights used to be but I am determined to get back there!!

Today is a rest day :)

Eating has been much better so far this week (knock on wood!!!) My meals haven't been anything special... but here are a few goodies...

As for the review of the recipe I talked about on Sunday... I made this recipe from Cooking Light. Normally, I love all of my Cooking Light recipes. Unfortunately, this one was not one of their best. Basically, you cook the peppers in a "sauce" that turned out to be VERY bland. I ended up draining the peppers out of the sauce... cooking up some pasta, placing the meatballs and drained peppers over it with some marinara sauce. That turned out great! I LOVED the meatballs, though! I added some parmesan cheese and some dried basil to the mixture and they were awesome! We made some "garlic toast" out of Ezekiel bread, some smart balance and garlic powder.
Now for "woe-is-me" numero dos... My daughter's eating habits! I'm really torn on this right now. Maddie used to eat anything and everything you put in front of her. She loved it all... fruits, veggies, whole grain pasta, meat, etc...I was so excited that I had a little one who had no objections when it came to food!

When she got to about 2 1/2 years old, all of a sudden - tomato sauce was not a good thing! She didn't want pizza (which is a total crime in our household!) because it had sauce on it... she didn't want spaghetti because it has sauce on it. She didn't like chicken - unless it was chicken nuggets, fruit was seldom... unless it was the apples from McDonald's or Subway... turkey burgers, etc, etc, etc...

Now, her typical diet is... begging her to eat some kind of cereal in the morning, PB&J for lunch (i at least make sure it's on whole wheat and some kind of reduced sugar jelly since she refueses to eat preserves at this point), maybe some carrots and strawberries if we're lucky! Usually with some Annie's organic bunny crackers... and her dinner is normally some cheese sticks, kashi tlc crackers, sliced ham, maybe an organic yogurt... or some of Annie's organic mac n cheese. Never what JR and I are having... which is aggravating.

That's a typical day for her at home on the weekends with JR and I.... she has dinner with us every night, though. What she eats at her grandparents house for breakfast and lunch during the week varies a lot.

Everything I have read says not to push kids to eat what's on their plate. I've been doing that for almost a year now... but Maddie seems to be eating less and less of things! But as of last week, we have tried establishing a rule of - try one bite of everything on your plate before you can get up from the table. I am hoping this will make her try some foods she hasn't in a long time or hasn't before and see if she will realize that she does like more than chicken nuggets!

Anyone have any kind of experience with this? Is there any advice you can offer? I would so appreciate it!

I do my best when it comes to the limited options she will eat! But I'm over fixing two or three different meals!

Okay... now for a contest - for you AND for me!

Holey Donuts has a great contest for us all! But I need your help for us both to possibly win!!

This is the email I got from Holey Donuts....

Enter September 1st -30th 2009 to Win 3 boxes of Holey Donuts! Low Fat Gourmet Donuts! and maybe it will be you that finds the $1,000.00 inside this time!

5 Lucky winners will be selected to win 3 boxes each of Holey Donuts! Ultra Low Fat Gourmet Donuts! But wait! One winner will be the luckiest when they open their winning box of donuts with an ENVELOPE inside the box containing $1,000.00 Cash!

Great tasting, Low Fat Gourmet Donuts and a chance to win $1,000.00 Cash! It doesn'tcan't get much better than that!

How Can I Enter? - Just visit www.holeydonuts.net then send Holey Donuts! an email to info@holeydonuts.net with the name of my blog - Mmmm...Meals, Mommyhood, Makeup & More in the subject line and your name and that's it you're entered!

Winners will be randomly chosen by Holey Donuts! and will be announced the week after September 30, 2009.

*The $1,000.00 will be in the form of a corporate check made out to the winner. All 5 lucky winners will be notified via email but no-one will be told which lucky winner is getting the $1,000.00 until their shipment arrives and they see the SPECIAL ENVELOPE with a $1,000.00 check inside their shipment!! How exciting is that??

Winners will be announced September 30, 2009!

Lets make this even better and give you a coupon code!

Your special offer will be buy 2 and get the 3rd box of 6 for $1.99! It will be added to their cart at full price but when they enter this code in the coupon code box ,then hit recalculate it will only charge them $1.99 . The code is SKINNY1 Making a purchase will automatically enter them into for Septembers $1,000 giveaway as well!

Sorry for the LONG post everyone! Have a great night!