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

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 

Super Spouses Must Super Take Care of Themselves! So Hit The Gym :(

When I got married, my body was in the best shape of my life. I had been working out almost every day, focusing mostly on the P90x Ab Ripper X. My dress fit beautifully,  draping where it should and clinging where it should.

Fast forward to now.

I just ate a Double Angus cheeseburger with curly fries and a large kool-aid from the campus choke-and-croak. As usual, I reminisce on the days of grabbing a salad after a rewarding workout, eating a banana between classes, and loving my body. Those days have been replaced by burgers, fries, and fleeting thoughts of joining the gym again and getting back to my long lost love.

Hubbers loves my body! He says I'm cute and curvy and he's proud of that... but I miss my abs. I don't really need to lose weight, just tone up. Siting here and bellyaching won't help my current situation, so this week, I'm joining the gym again.

I'm no beginner, but I feel like I should start from a beginner's level since it has been almost 9 months since I worked out. I decided to do a little research and see what I could find. Hoping to find realistic and manageable results, I found The Beginner Fitness Junkie. Angela does a great job of sharing her journey. Much like myself, she's a little reluctant to give up her favorite foods, but she's trying to make healthier choices that coincide with her workout routine.

I'm going to keep making the foods I make because I like them. I enjoy them, and Jeremy enjoys them. But I will also be on the lookout for some healthier snacks and smoothies which will also help with my workout. My Pinterest board "fitness" will keep you up to date on everything I'm pinning for consideration.

Until next time, my friends, all I can offer you is this piece of advice. If you don't like something, change it. YOU alone have the power to say "I'm not doing this anymore," and make the changes you need to your routine to get you back to where you want to be.

Love always,
Courtney

I Don't Do It Alone

Last night I had a moment of frustration. The laundry was done but we'd never actually gotten to the point of putting it away, the dog made a "mistake" in the carpet and the cat was having a great time terrorizing the dog. I had homework piled on top of my desk and halfway up the wall, and Jeremy and I were both just mentally and physically exhausted.

The homework thing had really gotten to me. At times I feel as if all the chaos in my house would not be there if I had not gone to graduate school. I needed to vent so before collapsing from exhaustion in my bed as Jeremy set up the weather radio, this is the conversation that happened with a friend that's out of town:

Me: I can't wait to see something other than this pavement jungle. I gotta get outta here. 

BFF: Yea no doubt lol

Me: I just need a break

BFF: I know it, you've been kicking all kinds of butt lately. 

Me: Well it comes with a price, a hard one. I'm tired. I feel like I having been showing much attention to my loved ones lately, the housework is lacking, my thoughts are scattered and Jeremy's bored. 

BFF: It's all going to be worth it, you know that, right? 

Me: I know... but nothing is really more important to me than a happy home and a happy husband. 

BFF: I know.. and what I also know is you being as successful as  you are and can be and will be makes him happy. He's proud of you.. we both are. 

Me: I know.. but I have equal pride in you guys and I fail to show it. 

BFF: Fail? Who said you do that? 

Me: I just don't feel like I show you guys how much I appreciate you. It's the little things, ya know? It means the world to me that Jeremy reminds me to eat breakfast (mornings are hectic, I often forget causing my hypoglycemia to kick into overdrive) and buys me Cadbury Cream eggs to surprise me. It warmed my heart when I fell asleep today and you reminded me to take my glasses off so they wouldn't break.  I love it when I cook and you and Hubbers fight over what's left. This is my own little family, you see? And I'd do anything I can for it. 

BFF: I know you would.. and we would do the same. You may not think you show appreciation but he sees it, I see it. You cook dinner after work, help him clean house after 10+ hours at school. It adds up. You're a great student, amazing wife, and the best friend/sister I could ask for. 

Me: Thank you ;) but I couldn't do it without help. 

BFF: Sure you could, you just don't have to :)

Do you see why I bust my butt so hard? My husband, my family, my friends.. they all support me like this. They. Are. Amazing. But I feel like I need to clear up a little detail.

I'm not a maid, nor am I treated like one. I clean house and cook for my husband because I want to. If I didn't, he'd do it, and he has when I failed. But I feel like my purpose as HIS wife, not just a wife, but HIS wife, is to do what I can everyday to show him how much I appreciate his hard work and how insanely in love I am with him. I'm not held with chains to the stove everyday. Jeremy and I actually split the chores.

Gallup did an interesting article on how spouses share the workload. You should check it out! You may find that it's not as black and white as most would think. It would make you see that the old fashioned wife and husband scenario is still the same.... and completely different at the same time.

If I cook, he washes dishes. If I sweep, he vacuums. If I walk the dog, he cleans the litter box. I clean the tubs, he does the counters. WE. SPLIT. EVERYTHING.

I couldn't be a super spouse without my super spouse! We meet in the middle and it makes us a team of Super Spouses.

Now I've given you a very deep look into my home life. What do you think? How do you share the chores? Do you ever get asked about how you feel regarding being the homemaker? Leave a comment below and we'll discuss it.

Be powerful, be precious, be patient.

Love as always,
Courtney

Chicken Fried Rice... Minus the Chinese Take Out.

Hubbers LOVES this recipe. Adores it. I try to make plenty for leftovers and that usually doesn't happen because he and my "brother in law" (Jeremy's best friend/brother, best man at our wedding) destroy it before the plates even hit the table.

You'll need:
1 can of carrots
1 can of peas
1 cup of rice
3 chicken breast
1 bottle of soy sauce
*eggs, scrambled
*green onion, diced
*zest of two oranges
*juice of two oranges

(**Means optional ingredients)

First things first, boil your rice. That's one cup rice, two cups water. Pour the rice and water in together, and bring it to a hard boil. Once it's boiling, cut the heat off, stir it, then put a lid on it. Let the steam work from there. This takes about 20 minutes. 

In the meantime, cook that chicken in the skillet. (I only used a few strips of chicken for a smaller amount. I like less chicken, you may add more.)

Next, combine all of your ingredients together. The peas should be drained as should the carrots. The chicken, once done, should be diced. Stir it all together so it looks like it does in the picture above. *If using optional ingredients, now is when you'd add the green onion, scrambled egg, and orange zest.*

Go ahead and heat up that skillet, wok, pan, what have you. I have an electric skillet that works wonders for this. 

Use max heat if using an electric skillet. 

It's not fried if there's no butter ya'll! Use about 2 tablespoons of butter to drop in that skillet. Paula Deen would use more, but we're not trying to lube up our arteries here. 

Throw that beautiful mess into the skillet once the butter has melted and sizzled. At this point we'll add the soy sauce, as much as you like (you won't use the whole bottle, hopefully. Taste it along the way. I like mine a little salty.) **If you're using the optional ingredients, add the orange juice here.

It's done when the excess juice and sauce have cooked into the rice. Enjoy this bit, kids, cause everyone is digging it!

Love as always, 

Courtney 

Catching Up Part 3--Rebuilding and Moving Forward

After the February 10th tornado, Southern Miss did not lay down and accept defeat. We stood up, we buckled up, and we tightened down.

On Southern Miss Cleanup Day, February 12, 2013 over 940 students plus 300 volunteers from either the alumni, community, or other schools came together and gathered over 2000 bags of debris. Thanks to them, we went back to work and school on February 14th, 2013.

That was how Southern moved on, and the Ingle house has moved on as well. We've added a new baby to our house! Folks, meet Mardi!

Mardi is our precioius, 4 pound Chiweenie. She was a shelter puppy. When we got her she was dehydrated, eat up with a worm infection, and almost to the point of malnutrition. But we loved her, so we took her home, cleaned her up, fattened her up, and she'll be spayed next week. Having her in our lives made us focus on something so pure, so innocent, and so time consuming that we quickly recovered from the emotional trauma of the destruction from the tornado. Plus, our cat Winry adores her. And yes, that is a picture of a cat grooming a puppy as if she were a kitten. There is so much cute in my house that you'd think My Little Pony threw up Dora The Explorer.

**Mardi Update***


As I was typing, I heard a knock at the door. I look up to find Mardi scratching the door furiously to be let out. I grab the leash but she gives me a "Mama we ain't got time for that" look, so I just open the door. Out she goes to the grass, handles business, and comes back in.

Praise be to God, my apartment is one poop/pee session closer to smelling like fresh linen again!


Don't worry, I'll be posting a recipe later. Actually, two, so stay tuned ;)


Love as always,
Courtney

Catching Up Part 2

As I told you all yesterday, there has been nothing regular about these last few weeks. In fact, complete and total chaos is starting to feel like the new norm! Today alone I have conducted massive research for a paper, finished a paper, started another paper, cleaned house, started supper, fixed lunch, walked the dog, and fought traffic on Hardy Street in Hattiesburg, MS. All of this took place before 2pm this lovely Friday... and Fridays are supposed to be my day off.

But now it's time to catch up on the other thing that has thrown us off lately.

February 10th, 2013.

Jeremy (also known as the hubs, my husband) and I were en route back home to Hattiesburg from his grandparents' house when I got a phone call from my Mama.

"Where are you?"
"About an hour from home, why?"
"Just pull over. There's a tornado where you live and I don't want you guys driving into it."

Now I knew the weather was bad, but I didn't think it was that bad. We had a friend at our place washing his clothes, so I called him.

"What's the weather doing?"
"Sirens are going off. We're (the friend and our cat. Very thoughtful of him to save the cat) in the bathroom, the weather is terrible."

I immediately began to panic. I told the hubs "stop for now, but get us home." We pulled over very briefly, but once the rain subsided we bolted for the Burg, the loving name for Hattiesburg.

As Jeremy is driving, both of our cell phones are being blown up. My mom, my stepdad, my dad, all on my phone. His dad, his grandparents, his sister, his co-workers, all on his phone. I turned by car into a mobile BellSouth station and answered all the calls with "yes, we're fine, what's happening there?"

My parents kept calling me, sending me text messages, and sending me links on Facebook to what we would not be able to imagine until we saw it ourselves. An EF-4 Tornado tore through the neighborhoods surrounding us, our apartment complex, then jumped over the highway and completely devastated Hattiesburg and Petal. News reports of complete devastation on the Southern Miss campus were churning in my stomach since I couldn't see it for myself. As we approached 49 South in Hattiesburg, we were redirected though non-affected residential areas to get to our apartment.

First pulling into our apartment complex, I had no idea what to expect. Entire roofs from neighboring buildings were gone. Pieces of billboard from the highway mixed in with the debris of annihilated houses, roofs, cars, trees, power lines and more. Thankfully, our building was untouched, with the exception of a tree branch on our neighbor's car. We were fine, but we had no power.

Long story short, we camped out to candlelight and an ice chest full of meat from our freezer. We waited for the news reports to roll in, we called family, and I mourned at the devastation bestowed to my beloved Southern Miss Campus.
Here are some videos and pictures of the devastation. Though it has been almost two weeks since this devastating tornado blasted its way through Hattiesburg and Petal, prayers are still welcome.


What happened next was a beautiful thing, but I'll tell you that later.

Elam Arms. USM former residence hall, roof gone, windows blown out, part of the building destroyed.

My apartment complex, this building took the most damage. Not livable, front of roof gone, side of the building gone, on the verge of collapse. All residents were relocated. 

Southern Miss from Elam Arms. Windows blown out, 75 trees along the front of campus, gone. What was once shrouded in beautiful trees is now completely open and can be seen straight over to the 49 south Highway.

An apartment building in my complex. Now condemned and beyond repair. No roof, water damage, massage structural damage, on the verge of collapse. 

Debris from a billboard and the debris from an apartment roof.

When All the Hats Get Heavy...You Have to Rest Your Neck!

So yesterday I spent 12 straight hours at work. I conducted meetings, prepared for more meetings, recorded my radio show, ordered new print cartridges... I even had time to squeeze in a class! With days like that, Super Spouses, the hats get pretty heavy. You start to give out, you're cranky, and before you know it you've had the "WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT UP!" moment. Though these moments come in high stress, they are highly avoidable. Here's how I avoid the ugly stress out snapping:

1. Delegate. I'm an Executive Producer of a radio show. If I had to prep the host, interview the guests, do the booking, record the liners, meet with the newsreaders, reporters, GM, and record my show all on my own, I'd go nuts. I have a great team that I have to choose to delegate tasks to. I also delegate at home. After a long day and a hot supper, Jeremy does the dishes. I'm not ashamed to ask him because I can't handle everything. Neither can you, Super Spouse.

2. Investigate. Work smarter, not harder. If you investigate the different ways through a situation, you may find a way to prioritize and order so that you see your "to-do" list as a "let's get it done" list.

3. Rationalize. There are 24 hours in a day. You spend 6-8 at work, 2-3 cooking, 2-3 studying, 1-2 on housework. That's a potential 16 hours gone. You can't do it all today, so figure out what can be shortened, compressed, and delayed.

4. Rest. Do it. Take that shower, read that book, tell the hubby to take the calls, put down the textbooks. If you don't, you risk burn out or worse. Treat yourself so that you can treat the people around you :)

Check out the {Never}homemaker. She has even more tips about how to stay healthy and some nutrition tips to help out. I'm following that particular link pretty closely myself. Stay strong, stay healthy, stay Super!

As always,
Courtney

Strategy Saturday!

We have all been there... it's a random night of the week, your budget is blown, you're starving to death and you have no idea what to cook. You'd make hamburgers but you only have the family pack of meat, the rest will suffer freezer burn and you're fighting to figure out what to eat before just throwing in the towel and heading for the closest drive-thru Choke-n-Barf. Have we already mentioned the weirdo smell coming from the fridge? Yea, there's a smell... and it smells suspiciously of last week's tilapia surprise. You're stressed, you're tired, you're frazzled--yup, this sucks. So how do we prevent this? 

I call it Strategy Saturday. In the Ingle house, I pop out of bed around 7:30am (that's late for us), grab my calendar and notepad and kickstart the strategy for the week. What am I planning? MEALS. That was our smelly, frazzled, starving, sucky weeknights happen fewer and further between.

I remember the days living at home. I'd wake up on a Saturday and find Mama at the table, a notebook, cookbooks, and a hand drawn days of the week calendar. I didn't realize until I got married how important that Strategy Saturday would be.

You can take control of your busy Tuesday on Saturday, all by planning your meals accordingly. Here's how:

First, either grab a calendar or list the days of the week. I shop for two weeks, so I set aside the next two weeks on the calendar. Sit down and plan every supper for two weeks. Once you've done that, make your grocery list around the meals. This is meal planning, folks... and it saves you time and anxiety.

Remember to consider your schedule when you plan meals. I have a late afternoon class on Monday, a night class on Tuesday, a late afternoon class on Wednesday and work every day of the week. So my meal planning looks like this:

Monday- Poppyseed Chicken

Tuesday- Crockpot Meatloaf

Wednesday-Chicken Fried Rice

Thursday-Date Night!

Friday-Pork Steak

And you get the point...

This will save you time, money, and frustration. Once you've made your menu and grocery list, shop accordingly. When you get home, plan accordingly. Casseroles can be put together a day in advance and refrigerated until you're ready to cook. Crockpot recipes cook while you're at work. Sounds easy, right? I'm not the only one.. I promise this works! Check out what blogger Jen Jones does for meal planning and more. Once the shopping and meal planning are done, clean house! And I mean, really clean. Throw away the tilapia surprise from the fridge, sweep, mop, CLEAN. That way this week you can relax for once because you deserve it!

Tackle it, Super Spouses. Welcome to Strategy Saturday!

Courtney 

Welcome All Struggling Super Spouses!

We are students, employees, homemakers, spouses, moms, sisters, support groups, soundboards, chefs, cheerleaders and the list goes on. How do we balance it? How do we wear so many hats at one time?

Welcome to Crockpots, Casseroles, and College. Here we will gather together to exchange ideas, give support, suggestions, and learn to balance everything we have going on. I'm going to be sharing recipe ideas with you that will make cooking a lot easier on your busy self, as well as sharing homemaking and managing tips. Together we can go from "struggling" to "Super Spouse!"

A little about myself: I'm a wife, homemaker, student, executive producer, friend, Sunday school teacher, party host, cat-mama, daughter, granddaughter, sister, cousin, advisor, boss, employee, and more! When I got married 6 months ago, my husband Jeremy had no idea what he was getting himself into. We were swimming in the changes for a while, but eventually I learned a few tips of the trade... tips I'm going to share with you. I'd learn to love more from you, so check out the Hit Me Up page.

To share some of your awesome stories and tips with me you can email me, comment, send me a tweet or whatever suits your fancy! I'm looking forward to all of us to move from "struggling" to "Super Spouse" together.

Super Spouses Unite!

Courtney

Twitter: @C_Carter_Ingle

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Email: crockpots(dot)casserole(dot)college(at)gmail(dot)com