Baby It's Flipping Cold Outside!!!!

 

This is how I feel today!!!! IT IS COLLLLDDD!!!  

I did warm up in the wee hours this morning with Ms. Jillian man she knows how to warm up those Winter Days!  I back on track and ready to start hard core training to get in shape and finish my 10K in March!! I'm pumped I'm ready...(que Eye of the Tiger)

So I thought I'd warm all of you up with a Yummy Soup that I made today!!! It's Hearty, Healthy, and sure to warm you up on this blustery Winter Day!!!  I created this recipe from a medley of different recipes I found so I guess it's an original.  We'll say it is anyway!!!

Organic Sausage Spinach Lentil Soup

6 OrganicCarrots (washed not peeled)

6 stalk of  Organic Celery

2 Medium Organic Onions

3 Cloves Garlic

1lb. Sausage (from none other than Sunrise Farm)

2 c. Lentils (I used 1 cup green, 1 cup red) Rinse them!!!

2 Cartons Vegetable Broth

2 cups Fresh Baby Organic Spinach (found in Salad section)

3 sprig fresh Thyme or 3 t. dried thyme

Salt and Pepper to Taste

In a large Stock Pot Brown Sausage and chunk up into small bits (like ground beef), once browned take out drain fat and set aside.

Chop Carrots, Celery, Onions chop into large chunks.  Mince Garlic.  In your stock pot that you cooked the sausage in satue' veggies.  Start with Onions and Garlic once they are translucent add carrots and celery!  Add Thyme if you are using fresh just pinch the stem at one end and slide the leaves off into the pot, add salt and pepper to taste.

Add Sausage saute' for a few minutes.  Then add Broth be sure and scrape the bottom of the pan to get all those good sausage and onion bits.  They call that deglazing, Wow I feel so professional!!!

Bring this mixture to a boil then add Lentils, boil for about 5 mins. reduce the heat and simmer for 30-45 mins.  Then add Spinach and let that wilt and simmer for about 10-15 more minutes.

 Voila'

Enjoy!!! 

Pictures of mine coming soon! 

It's so good I had it for lunch and plan on having it for dinner!!  It's soooo good if I do say so myself!!! I know I'm so modest!! 

Holy Christmas Batman!

I decided to give my self an early Christmas present and I started the 30 day Shred with none other than Biggest Loser Coach Jillian Michaels!!!  I know it's a crazy day to start a new workout routine I was feeling guilty not doing any exercise in quite a number of days!!! And hey no better time than the present right??

WHOOHOOOOHOOO!!! Holy Mother was it painful!!!!  I'm already sore and is hasn't even been 12 hours!!  That is the best 20 minute workout I've ever had!!! It's amazing what she can do in just 20 mins. It was AWESOME! Excited for tomorrow's workout at 6AM!! I'm gonna be getting up with the chickens LOL!!!

Got the alarm clock set and the tea pot on the stove for my Hot Orange Spark in the wee hours of the mornin'!!!  Man I love that stuff!

Along with working out with Jillian I've also been following it yet another famous lady's footsteps...
Whom you ask???

I always get in the mood for baking and cooking when Christmas time comes around and I've been cooking up a storm!

Here's the list so far: (pictures to come)

Danish Cream Cheese Braids (SO NOT HEALTHY VERSION but they're for gifts so I won't be eating them)

Sugared Cranberries

Several Batches of Healthy Sugar Cookies

Creme de Menthe (Health Version)

Cranberry Orange Energy Bars

Chocolate Covered Energy Bars

Just to name a few!!

I'll post recipes for all these yummy treats soon!!
I have to run for now I hear my oven timer beep beep a' beepin'!!

Christmas Memories

Seeing as how I have not been able to train all week long actually for the past two weeks I figured I'd still get to posting and my little Sassy Pants updating my blog.  So I'm gonna take this time to reflect on Christmas Past!!
Every so often I get this little drop in my heart when I look at my Little Man who is growing so fast and think about what we were doing on this day two or three years ago!

Here's some great Christmas Memories...(que Sappy Christmas Music)

  

Christmas 2005

HOLY CHRISTMAS BATMAN...

 

Sweet Baby Boy!

 

 

 

Christmas 2006

 

Christmas 2007

  

Then along came our little Boo!!

Christmas 2008

 

My How time Flies!!! 

 

 

Hi ho Hi ho a running I will go...

In March I'm go to run my first ever 10K Race in Richmond.  My goal is to jog all 6.2 miles of it.  Along with that I'm hitting the nutrition hard core.  Eating as healthy and as fresh or (raw) as I possibly can.  By making everything from scratch and cutting out all the processed foods (which is a task we've achieved about 90% already)!!!!!
I'm excited about this new life change but a little nervous too!!!  So in hopes to have some accountability and keep me motivated I'm gonna start blogging about my adventure along with all the other stuff that goes on in the life of a Domestic Diva.

I've never been a runner, in fact I loathed it through out my life but I'm determined to not only like it but LOVE IT by this time next year!
  As a mother of two very rambunctious children I feel like I'm already a runner of sorts, short distance that is!! I run to the grocery store, I run to cook meals, clean the kitchen 1000X a day, I run to wipe butts, I run to pull mischievous two year olds out of our pond when they've decided to take a quick swim in the dead of Winter (she's training for the swim team her blog is coming soon). 

So with the help of this...

and a little bit of this...

and some of this...

I can hopefully feel like this...

and look like this...