Back to the Gym!

After 8 months of no gym, I'm finally headed back to get the body I want. I joined the local fitness club yesterday and I'm more than ready to get my body back! I'm doing well so far... I had a peanut butter banana smoothie for breakfast this morning and I'm already in my gym clothes.

I'm starting off like a beginner again for two reasons: I'm out of shape, and I have an erratic heart rate. Sometimes my heart rate and my breathing don't sync up during exercise and I get a little fuzzy. So I'm going to take it slow.

There are two main workouts I'm focusing on today. One is a month long challenge you can find on my Pinterest Fitness board called Mad Abs March. This is day 1 for me!

The second I'm doing is focusing on certain body parts on certain days. My workout days will be Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. On Fridays I'll focus on legs and cardio. Though cardio will always be my warm up, it's my primary on Fridays. You can see how I'm getting started here.

I will not be posting crazy pictures of myself. You guys don't wanna see that, nor do I want you all saying "well you should be doing this" or "you're doing it wrong" or my personal non-favorite "you don't need to work out!" Yes I do! I have my future and the future of my family to think of. This isn't just for me.


Love as always,
Courtney

This one's for the boys... and girls.

When reading on Pinterest, you never actually know if some of the linked articles are going to be for a general audience, men, or women. I found this today and thought that after the day I've had, a little information about stress reducing food could do us all a little good. So what if it's from Men's Fitness?

This is 10 Foods to Beat Stress... of course, I'm going to tell you what to do with those foods to make them a little more tasty and family or even party friendly. I picked my favorite five from the list, you can consult the article for more. 

1. Asparagus-- apparently, asparagus is a super food. Now, good luck getting your family and friends to eat this without gagging, especially if it's coming straight from the can.. but if you buy it fresh and grill it in some tin foil and wrapped in bacon, seasoned with a little Tony's seasoning... you've got stress reducing gold at your next cookout. 

2. Avocado-- I LOVE avocado. Love it! But not everyone can just peel and eat it straight like I can. Of course you can always mash it up with some onion for an awesome guacomole, but what you should do is mash it until its spreadable and serve it as a spread for a turkey and tomato sandwich on toasted wheat bread. A healhty sandwich with feel good after effects. 

3. Almonds--these are a good stress buster.. but also a good, healthy, filling snack between meals and post-workout. Almonds are incredibly versatile, but for a healthy yet snazzy set up, grill some shrimp, slice some red onion, cherry tomatoes, pull some broccoli, and get some almond slivers over baby spinach with low-fat raspberry vinegarette dressing. BOOM! (sorry, BOOM! is my spin on BAM! by Emeril.)

4. Spinach-- as I mentioned with the almonds, this makes a great salad. Try baby spinach with shredded mozzarella cheese, bacon bits, fried onion, red onion, and oil and red wine vinegar as the dressing. Hubbers is extremely picky and hates salad, but thanks to a friend, this is the only salad he will eat!

5. Oranges-- my final pick from the list. The citrus smell is enough to send you to Florida via mental image, but the best for oranges goes beyond the carton. Mix up some honey and orange juice and a little orange zest, and rub that on a chicken breast just before grilling. Use what's left of your orange for a snack while you wait for the chicken! Also, orange juice can be added to any smoothie for a quick me up. 

Browse through the list and tell me what you would do to the ingredients! Leave a comment below. 

Keep calm and snack, 

Courtney 

Is this real life?

I recently found an app on Pinterest, and I have to give it a go. Apparently, you select the items you have currently in your kitchen, and it gives you a recipe. Well I found one for yellow cake.... in a mug. In. The. Mircowave. 

It's 9:30 at night. I have to try this!

Here's my story.

You'll Need:
2 tbsp. Flour 
1.5 tbsp. Sugar 
1/4 tsp. Baking powder 
1/8 tsp. Salt 
2 tbsp. Milk 
3/4 tbsp. Oil 
1/4 tsp. Vanilla

Mix all the ingredients and microwave for about a minute and a half.

Oh my gosh, it actually worked. And this is the only bite I had. Hubbers annihilated it. 

Dear Dorm Friends. YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO!

Thank you, Pinterest. Thank you. 

With Love As Always, 

Courtney 

Reflections

There it is. That's the first meal I cooked for Jeremy when he got his first apartment. We were 22 years old, engaged, and completely clueless. I still lived on campus, but I very frequently went over to cook supper. I figured that with him not getting off work until 7, I had plenty of time to burn supper and start over. And I did, a lot.

That meal up there? That's tacos, canned corn, and a .79 7 minute rice pack. In the glasses? That's the most epic mixture of both orange and cherry kool-aid that you will ever experience. When I see this picture, I see extremely humble beginnings, two clueless kids hopelessly in love and tackling the world together, and yet I can pinpoint this exact moment as the start of my love of being in the kitchen. I think that's why I took the picture.

I've come a long way in the kitchen. First of all, I will never buy that rice again. It's terrible. We've graduated from kool-aid to water and milk (for health, not choice) and I very rarely make tacos like this anymore. I don't use as much processed food in our meals because I want to keep my family healthy.

I don't know why I feel like sharing this with you. I guess because I keep getting emails and comments about "I am impressed with your cooking!" and "I need to learn to cook!" Here's where I started! With a 15 minute taco recipe.

I do this blog for this reason. You can get there. Not just as a spouse or a homemaker, but in anything! In one year's time I've got from dorm-room microwave disaster to a wife, homemaker, and executive chef in the Ingle household. Small beginnings my friends, small beginnings.

Love, as always,
Courtney

Here's My Breakfast Pie!! (sang to the tune of Cherry Pie)

Hubbers loves this recipe, I love this recipe, friends love this recipe... and it's easy as pie!

I introduce you to Breakfast Pie! Breakfast Pie is a product of playing "cookbook roulette." (Cookbook Roulette is what happens when you throw all the cookbooks in the floor and randomly pick recipes because you don't really know what you want for supper.)

Here is this heavenly concoction. People, friends... fasten your seatbelts.

You'll need:

1 can of evaporated milk (NOT CONDENSED MILK)
5 eggs
3 cups of shredded hashbrowns (thawed if they were frozen)
1lb of sausage (I used Country Sage)
2 cups of cheddar cheese shredded
2 pie crusts, the rolled kind from the refrigerated section

*optional ingredients
1 half bell pepper, diced
1 half onioin, diced

Lay you out a pie crust in that awesome round pan. 

Brown up that sausage

If using the optional ingredients, dice up that onion and bell pepper

Get them hashbrowns. 

Now, for whatever reason, I don't have pictures. Oh, technology. But you'll want to beat those 5 eggs with the evaporated milk. Then, when the sausage is brown, layer that in the pie crust, then dice the onions, then layer the hash browns on that. Next, put on the cheese, pour the egg and milk concoction, and put that other pie crust on. Bake for 25 minutes at 400. 

Boom! Slice that girl open. 

Can. You. See. The. Goodness?

Hubbers gave this one a Thumbs Up. This is one of those great ratings that you don't just win at the Oscar's. Just saying. You may want to write this one down in the history books. 

Serve this up with some salsa for an extra kick. 

Guys, seriously, try this one. It's awesome!

Love as always, 

Courtney 

Stay Calm and Go Find A Hobby On Pinterest

My dearest friends...

I'm flippin' exhausted! I had a test tonight that I studied for, I got sick yesterday from that burger I told you about, and to make it all better, the Hubs and I ended up on a road trip for his job last night and we didn't get in until almost midnight.

Did I mention that Mardi massacred Winry's toys, ate the statement from my insurance and possibly peed in my shoe? For shame, Mardi!

I cannot punish her as she will be spayed tomorrow. Of course she has no idea what's about to happen to her, but I don't like the thought of my baby's insides not being, well... inside. 

Figured I'd add this too. Winry, as always, does not want to be left out of the limelight, so she casts her loving little shadow. This was the first picture we attempted to shame Mardi with. 

 On days like this, you need a hobby. Hobbies are therapy, they are a friend, they are a way for you to get alone, blow off steam, de-stress and just unwind. For me, I have two hobbies. Blogging and cooking. Tonight, you will see the best of both of those, because I'm going to hit you hard with some blogs as I need to unwind. 

But first, back to hobbies. Pinterest has a ton of hobby ideas, and I have found one particular board that I often use to see how other people make use of their hobbies. Go to that board for a little information and inspiration regarding hobbies. Do yourself a favor. Prevent gray hair and get a hobby! 

 A super student, a super spouse, a super homemaker will not be productive without some quality personal time. When you find a hobby, do it for you. This is the time for you to be blissfully selfish! And now, back to my hobby...

Love always, 

Courtney 

Oh Right... I'm Supposed To Study!

So I've posted about casseroles...

I've posted about crockpots..

About relationships, pets, and working out..

But I've never posted about the one thing that drove me to blogging.. I've never posted about being a student!

Students have to study right? I know, it sucks. I hate it. But I have found some awesome study tips and tricks along the way that I am going to share with you now.

Music

I work in radio. My life revolves around listening to the radio, listening to music or having background noise at all times. Needless to say, the silent study thing doesn't work for me, but neither does rocking out to Kelly Clarkson. Instrumentals help me a ton, and I've found that on 8tracks.com I can listen to premade playlists. Try the study+relax+instrumentals genre! Nothing is more soothing and yet gets you pumped as a piano rendition of Hall of Fame by The Script. Great, great study music.

Want new music and old school greats? Check out Southern Miss Radio and stream it live. Yes, this is completely biased because I work there, but it is also great to study to. I told you, I work in radio, and that's my place.

Study Techniques

There are tons of reading methods for you heavy-reading-burdened scholars. Personally, I've mastered the art of scanning the reading for graduate school, but that doesn't always work. I suggest the SQ3R method. It does take a lot of time, but it's worth it.

Flashcards work for more than just math. If you're having to study concepts (which I do, a lot) take the flashcard and write the name of the theory, concept, etc on one side and on the other side write everything you need to know about that subject. For example, if you're studying critical cultural theory (I have a test tonight :/ ), on one side of the card you'd write "hot medium." On the other side, you'd write "the medium is the message, Marshall MacLuhan. A hot medium is one that gives extensive data to the receiver without much interpretation or work from the receiver. Ex: television."
Run through those bad boys a few times, you'll be surprised how quickly you'll learn it.

Planning

Be organized. I can't even begin to tell you how important that is. Use different highlighters on your calendar for different classes, write everything down, and have different binder divisions or different notebooks for different subjects. Don't do like me and write things down on random loose sheets of paper.

Manage your time. Use a planner, schedule your breaks, and realize (for your own good) that you can't just spew forth a 20 page historical media research project with a proposal the day before it's due.
__________

Look, I'm a professional student. I've spent every single school year since I was five (I'm approaching 24) in school. I have learned that what once worked doesn't work anymore, that it continuously takes work, self-awareness, and organization to nail those grades. But if I could do it, you could. I know you could :) So get to the books, boo. You've got some studying to do.

Love as always,

Courtney :)