Meal Planning

On December 29, I started the new Beach Body program Insanity Max 30 with a challenge group and I've really enjoyed it despite it being as flipping hard as the original Insanity, maybe even more so!  I am two weeks in now and working out consistently, only missing one day.

This makes me super proud of myself because after all that hard work last year, I slacked off. I felt good, watched what I ate and stayed moving periodically. Then I did it less and less and found that weight I had lost again.  Oops, that wasn't what I wanted.

So, I started and stopped a few other programs and eventually, this one by Shaun T came out and caught my interest.  Even better, I know I can do this program physically so to maximize my results, in week 2 of the program I committed to creating and following meals that fit with the program's recommended meal plan.  It took me a long time to do that. It's hard to get the  right amount of protein and veggies and carbs when you aren't familiar with it but I was determined and it eventually came together. That's what this post is really about. What meals I planned out, my prep for the week and whether I followed it.

First off, the plan in the program is relatively easy to follow. I just like a lot of variety in my eating so wanted to give myself that through the week.  Below are the meals I set up for myself. I eat 4-5 times a day so I can keep my metabolism moving (and because, let's face it, I get hungry!)

    

    

  

I have to say, I did deviate from these just a little bit but I managed to stick with it for the whole week. (Some recipes and photos below.)  Meal prepping for the week helped. What did I do as the weekly prep?

1) I made egg muffins instead of cooking eggs each morning. 

  

2) I pre-baked the chicken meatballs and roasted the spaghetti squash (I also removed the squash from it's skin. 

3) I cut all the veggies I could precut for salad and cooking (carrots, cucumbers, onions, mushrooms) and labeled the bags so I knew how much to use for each meal and what meal. (FYI, a paper towel helps keep moisture at bay and keeps the veggies longer in your refrigerator.)

4) I made my almond milk (I use that in the shakeology or smoothies)

I could have prebaked the pork and precooked some of my vegetables but I don't like eating leftovers more than a few times and the egg muffins were enough for me. I wanted to cook during the week. As it is, what I did do took a couple hours but will go faster each time I do it. Mostly, I was trying to figure out what worked best for me.  That time was well spent b/c actual meal prep/cooking time during the week was next to nothing. I enjoyed yummy meals! 

Seriously, yummy.

Now, did I stick to this? Mostly. I find it REALLY hard for me personally to have pre-planned meals.  I think for me, I need to have a more generalized plan and then fill it in with my day to day needs (sometimes I want protein over veggies and sometimes I want all veggies). :)  I will be better about tracking my macros and following a little more closely to a plan during the week. Like a category of foods rather than actual meals.  For me, I can still prep veggies, etc. for meals but I don't have to eat the meals at exactly the same time I originally suggest to myself. Does that make sense?

I am going on and on about this, I know but it is an important part to our health. We eat so many prepared and processed foods that we don't realize how poorly we do eat simply by not knowing what ingredients are in the food.  I don't want that for me anymore. I love the taste of fresh food with 5 simple ingredients. These chicken meatballs? Just look at the recipe below to know how simple and yummy they are.  I will stick to my plan, 6 more weeks and I will proudly come back here and post my successes once again. I'm so excited. 

I hope, if you are thinking you need to make a change, you take a little time and think about why you haven't started and then start.  Or, if you are making a change toward healthy and fit, you continue on your journey. You are all so worthy of being healthy, fit and happy! 

If you are interested, here are the meals/portions I planned.  Part of this helped me prep and portion out the meals.

Per Serving Meals

Eggs w/veggies: 2 lg eggs (or 4 egg whites & 1 lg egg) plus 1 cup worth of veggies (tomato, onion, asparagus, mushroom) - Need 4 servings

Avocado & Tomato on Rye Bread: 2 slices tomato , ¼ c. mashed avocado spread over rye bread – Need 4 servings

Mixed Veggie Salad w/Turkey: 1 c. veggies (mixed greens) plus tomato, cukes, 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds, 1 Tbsp Dijon Vinagrette, 3oz turkey, ¼ cup avocado (only for 1 serving) – Need 4 servings (only 3 have turkey)

Berry Banana Shakeology: strawberry shakeology, 1 banana, 1 c. almond milk – need 4 servings

Bananas Yo Shakeology: chocolate shakeology, 1 c. almond milk, 1 tsp. peanut butter, 1 banana - Need 2 servings

Chicken & Veggie Meatballs:  chicken meatballs (see recipe p. 2), 1 ½ c. spaghetti squash, ¼ c. tomato sauce – need 1 serving

Beef & Veggie Stir Fry w/rice: ¾ c. brown rice, 1/2 c. steak cubes, 1 c. veggies (use broccoli, peas, carrots, onion, water chestnuts), 1 egg, olive oil & sesame oil – need 1 serving

Avocado & Shrimp bowl: ¼ c. avocado, ¾ c. shrimp, 1 c. brussel sprouts (or 5 md. sprouts) w/shrooms & onions – need 1 serving

Roasted Pork Loin w/carrots & Couscous: 1 c. carrots, ¾ c. pork, ½ c. couscous – need 1 serving

Chicken Breast w/Veggies: 1 c. veggies of choice (leftovers?), 1 chicken breast, ½ c. couscous –need 1 serving

Grilled Steak w/brussel sprouts (cream corn for M) & mashed taters: ¾ c. steak, 1 c. sprouts (or 5 md.

sprouts) sauteed w/shrooms & onion, ½ c. mashed taters – need 1 serving

Green Smoothies: see recipes below – need 2 servings

A couple recipes I used.

Veggie Turkey Meatball (on yourtea.com)

This lean, clean and green delicious meatball is shared by YingYing Kuang (IG: @yingying258) is super easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:

- 1-1 ½ pounds 99% lean ground turkey (substitute ground chicken)

- ¼ cup chopped onions                                                                     - ¼ cup chopped celery                     

- ¼ cup chopped kale or spinach                                                        - ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

- 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed                                                                - ¼ teaspoon sea salt (I prefer Trader Joe’s Garlic Salt)
- ¼ teaspoon of pepper                                                                       - 1 large egg white
- 1 teaspoon of almond flour (secret ingredient)(substituted 1Tbsp quick cook oats)       - Coconut oil/cooking spray

*Note: you can also use any of your favorite veggies as substitutes to the above

 Preheat oven to 325C - Coat broiler pan with coconut oil or cooking spray. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well, shape into size you prefer. - Bake at 325C for 15-18 minutes (depend on the size of the meatball) or until done.

GREEN SMOOTHIES (from simplegreensmoothies.com)

Apple Pie                                                                               CITRUS CRUSH

serves two                                                                              serves two

2 cups fresh spinach                                                              2 cups fresh spinach
1 1/2 cups almond milk, unsweetened                                  1 ½ cups water
3 apples                                                                                 1 cup pineapple
4 mejdool dates                                                                     1 orange, peeled
1 tsp cinnamon                                                                      1 cup grapes, any variety
pinch of nutmeg

For the egg muffins, I just used whatever veggies I wanted and precooked them a bit before adding the egg to muffin tins and baking.

All said and done, this one week experiment was a success for me and I will take a good bit of it into these next several weeks so I can retrain myself to make better choices and to enjoy the benefits of it, too!

Here's to a healthy and Happy New Year!

Becky

More mini quilts

I have  made a few more mini quilts for 2 different reasons. The first reason is for another IG swap, actually called IGMini Swap. :)

My partner said she liked rainbow things and improv but wanted something a little more sophisticated. Trying to touch on all three items, I came up with this, It's quilted in rainbow variegated thread.

I sent a little mug rug, too, for the heck of it.

I made the quilting show on the back because I figured if she didn't like the front it would give her an alternative way to hang it.  She seems to like it, though, and the quilting so maybe she will hang it both ways, depending on her move.

This is what I received from someone else in the swap. I love it!

The other minis I created as giveaway prizes to my IG followers. I have been active there while not so much here and chose 5 random followers and made a mini of their choosing from the website fandominstitches.com.  It's great if you know how to foundation piece and like themes!

 The extra "O" is for a friend.

I had some fun making all of these.

Cheers!
Beck

Being a Swap Mama

I'm in my third round of the Schnitzel & Boo Mini Swap (it just started) & my second round as a swap mama for it. However, before I get into the meat of this post, I wanted to provide a little background.

This swap, originated and run by Kristi over at Schnitzel & Boo, is partly responsible for all my swap sign ups to date and is directly responsible for my volunteering as swap mama.Twice. I enjoyed the large group of people to follow, seeing their creations and listening to their buzz about the ups and downs of trying to make for partners they've never met. I shared in every one of those experiences in one way or another and I made new InstaGram friends and widened the number people I stalk (I mean, follow and praise!) greatly. :)

All that said when I went into round 2 of the the S&B swap, I put on my answers that I would help as a swap mama and lo and behold, a swap mama I became. WHAT A RIDE! 

(One more note before I forget, Karri over at Karri of Berries has a great post on being a swap participant. Give it a read. I've been guilty of one or two things on that list that I shouldn't do (like "I like everything") but mostly, it's a helpful guideline to get you thinking about answers for the next swap you sign up for.)

You might think being a mama is just checking in with your group of participants here and there and kind of keeping track of their progress and you are right.  It also means being organized (honestly, I don't remember yesterday so remembering who was on my list and who they were making for was always a blur).  For me, organization meant knowing how to read my excel spreadsheet that contained the makers and all their information as well as the receivers and all the answers to the swap questions! It meant knowing where everyone was in the process. Were they on track to finish on time, did they send their mini, did they receive their mini?  It meant answering questions along the way by participants and helping them get more info from the recipient if the maker was having difficulty finding much (some folks are less active on social media).  It also meant keeping track of people who had to drop out or those who did not receive a mini and being sure a Swap Angel was assigned and then that mini was made and received.  There were more, little things in this whole process but that's the gist.

I hated it.  Okay truth, only a teeny, tiny, itty, bitty part of me hated it. The part of me that felt unorganized and out of her depth at the beginning. But then, the part of me that gets a high off of organizing something, making a process and seeing it work, LOVED it.  I liked it so much so that I offered to be a mama again. I'm taking what I learned the first time around, applying it to this round and trusting that it will work so I have little fear of being stressed over this. 

So, if you are ever thinking about being a swap mama, here are some things that work as best practices for me. Modify them, make them your own. We aren't robots and what works for me is not always going to work for everyone else but I'm posting this just to consider, more of an FYI.

What works for me?

1. Get ORGANIZED - Take the excel list sent with the detailed information & make a new sheet that contains the only info I really need in my quick searches. Add a couple columns for action items such as, confirmed partner received, mailed date, received date, etc.  
2. RECORD my interactions with my group on the spreadsheet. For example, if Sally tells me she's travelling for work and will be mailing on the 20th instead of the 16th b/c she didn't have a chance to finish binding before she left, I can record it in a comment column and let her partner Jane know that it's mailing a couple days late (also recording by Jane's name). Between work and home life, I won't remember if I told Jane so noting that helps me.
3. USE the resources available to you. I often screen shot my IG notification feed so I don't miss something I'm tagged on if I can't respond to it right away.  I also use the folders in my email. When I've responded to something, I will file the emails into the folder. That way, only the emails that I still need to act on are in my inbox.
4. COMMUNICATE proactively with my group. If mail dates are arriving, I will ask my group to check in on how they are doing.  I'm a last minute worker so I tend to think a reminder of an upcoming deadline is a good thing.
5. Be POSITIVE and PATIENT.  I can usually manage the first one but the second is a little more difficult some days.  I always try to remind myself that while I may be fielding 1600 questions at once, the person asking me one question does not know that and if it takes me 3 days to respond, she's likely feeling her ask has been overlooked or ignored and is reaching out to others. What to do? Figure out your reasonable response time. for me, I like to try to answer IG requests within a couple of hours. That is reasonable for my schedule but email takes longer.  If I know I wont be able to answer quickly, I at least try to respond quickly and give the person asking a time frame in which I will provide an answer.  You have no idea how quickly stress can be reduced for me and the person needing an answer, by taking a moment to do that.   
6. TALK with the other mamas.  If you aren't sure something is going right or have questions about how you are handling things, ask the other mamas.  Because we are all different, they have invaluable input. Sometimes, you just need to let a little vent out so you can go back to being #4. Other times, the mamas will also help you stay on track with communications to your groups. 

That's it. Pretty simple, right?  Really, the spreadsheet work was the turning point for me last round. Trying to keep it all in email or IG made me go a little mad. As soon as I got smart about keeping it all in the source that came to me, it was simpler.  I hope this gives you ideas about what might work for you if you ever decide to become a swap mama and if you do, enjoy the ride.  It's actually pretty fun to interact with so many people as they stretch their creative talents.

Thanks, Kristi, for being responsible for bringing me so much joy in making minis, swapping them and, yes, in letting me do it all while also getting my "organize on".  

Cheers!

Beck

Deer Quilt - a Luke Haynes pattern

I came across a QAL posted on Bernina's We All Sew website and knew I'd make it one day soon to hang on the wall at the barn on our hunting/retreat property.

One day soon turned out to be a couple months later but I made it. For the instructions and details, please click on the link above but for mine, let me detail it in pictures and a summary at the end.

 Auditioning backgrounds.

Auditioning binding.

I and most of Instagram liked orange but hubs said no. I put it on for a couple days only and then put on the dark blue instead.

Here he finally is!

I found this to be a well explained and easily followed set of instructions and I love the final product but for me personally, it's a fussy process so it lost some appeal part way through.  I tend to be as lazy as I can in the process and cut corners. For this one, that means I only spot glued the applique down and then didn't quilt it for a couple weeks. That meant I had to deal with shifting pieces. MY OWN FAULT. If I had taken more care in the basting/positioning, I'm sure I would have been fine.  Still, I can shrug it off because the overall raw edge look on this quilt gives a nice 3-D impression for the deer head.

Overall, I love it and hubs likes it, which is good since I made it for him. (ETA that hubs changed his mind and actually liked the orange better so the blue binding came off and the orange went back on. Then I put it in my local guild quilt show and won a 3rd place ribbon in its category. Sa-weet!)

Thank you Luke Haynes, for sharing your process and providing a pattern to let us achieve a little bit of what you can do!

Cheers!
Beck

Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap -via Instagram

I may not have been blogging much lately but I have been getting things done.  Of course there is work and home. We had one kiddo graduate high school this past June - Yay K!

Then there were a couple customer quilts to quilt (one is pictured below). They were both very pretty and enjoyable to work on. I hope I've done a well enough job to make them repeat customers!

Aside from the other two quilts I last blogged about, I have been working on quilt blocks for two bees I'm in, the Stitch That Stash Bee and a LA Traveling Quilt Bee.  To keep me from wondering what I have and haven't blogged about with regards to those, I will save all the block photos and post them at once for each.

But lastly, and the focus of today's post, are three mini quilts I have completed. I participated in the Schnitzel and Boo Instagram Mini Swap and boy was it fun. I ended up making 3 minis instead of one but all were enjoyable and I got to stretch my creative wings.   This was a blind swap so the recipients never know what they are getting until they get it.

First, the angel mini for a person who still hasn't received one (it may be in transit from AU or it may be lost, who knows?). She said Camille Roskelly was an inspiration and she seemed to favorite a lot of rainbow quilts.  So, being quite smitten with the swoon block myself, I made her a Rainbow Swoon. It took a minute to figure out the cutting and color placement but once I did, sewing it up was nice and easy. I liked it so much I had a hard time mailing it but her happiness in receiving it makes me happy in the end.

Second up, a mini for a gal that did not have a lot of quilty inspiration on her IG feed to help me figure something out.  I stalked her Flickr and Pinterest accounts and ran across an entire Pin Board devoted to Alice in Wonderland.  Not the Disney version either, but the more vintage looking Alice. That gave me some ideas about rabbit holes and quotes.   So I used the template pattern from my Rabbit quilt and made a black and white "hole". I hoped the color placement would give the visual effect of falling and gave a couple simple swirl quilting lines to aid in that effect.

Then I added 4 quotes but jumbled them all up so it's like a phrase search for the rest of the quote.  They read, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."  "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get." "How long is forever? Sometimes, just one second." "You have to be half mad to dream me up." I called it "Alice's Jumbled Thoughts."

This was a fun one to make and very nerve-wracking.  I mean, what if that board was there for ideas for a friend's wedding shower or something?  Turns out, however, it was her board and she liked the mini and uniqueness of it all the more. Yes!

Last but not least was a mini that had me truly nervous about sending.  Again this person didn't have a lot of quilty inspiration on her IG feed but had some family posts and posts about her horses. She gave me a good idea of her likes on her sign up sheet and I sat to thinking about how to get her something more personal for her, I browsed her IG feed more closely.  I happened upon a nice shadow photo which she labeled "me and my shadow." A light bulb, I can make that. But how? How to make it look nice? Ahh, wonky strips of her favorite colors with the shadow overlaying it. Yep.  So I did it. Then sent it. Then stressed she wouldn't hate it or be disappointed.

Her response just served to remind me that when we listen to our hearts, we create quilts which truly touch people.  This is what she wrote when she posted her receipt, "possibly the most amazing thing anyone has ever made for me... another pic after I pull myself together." "I was hoping it was mine but hubs was skeptical saying the pose was so common it could be anyone (in response to a sneak peek I posted) with a horse so I talked myself out of it. I retired Gracie last year and it has been a very emotional thing for me, so this mini is particularly special."  I felt like I did something good and I love that feeling when I make a quilt. Yay!

The person who made for me was Eileen (IG: Luckycharm933635) and she hit it on the head! I love her paper-pieced creation with fussy cut fabrics and color choices.  How can this not make me happy, just look at it!

If you've never participated in a swap, consider it. If you are open to receiving whatever, you will probably enjoy it quite a bit.

Cheers!
Beck