Around the Plate 12 Day Healthy Holiday Challenge and a New Slow-Cooker Recipe! December 11, 2012

Peanut decided to find a comfy spot on the stairwell this morning! Keenan immediately found her as we were walking down the stairs. He usually holds onto the rail as he walks down the stairs and when he saw Peanut, he immediately took his hand off, to make sure he wouldn’t touch her! It was too funny!

Happily siting on the stairwell!

Before I share my new slow-cooker recipe, I’m excited to be featured as a guest blogger on Around the Plate for their 12 Day Healthy Holiday Challenge series. Around the plate is a wonderful online community that brings together nutrition experts and interested individuals to improve the way the world eats one plat at a time. I had the privilege to write a post for Day 7 of their challenge: Holiday Activities to Keep You Moving and Burning Calories. It was a fun article to write, since I love doing all of the various holiday activities that usually aren’t around the rest of the year. As an added bonus, most of the activities provide great exercise! Please take a moment to check out my post and share it with your friends and family members! Thanks!!

Now, on to my new slow-cooker recipe that I made for tonight’s dinner! It smells SO good; I can’t wait to eat it!

Slow-Cooker Sweet and Spicy Pork Chops: (serves 2)

Ingredients:

– 2 frozen pork chops

– 1/4 low sodium soy sauce

– 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

– 1/2 cup ketchup

– 2 tsp honey

– 2 small cloves garlic (minced)

– 1/2 tsp pepper

-1/4 tsp garlic powder

– 1/2 tsp garlic no-salt seasoning

– 1/4 cup chicken broth

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together, except for pork chops.

2. Place pork chops in your crock pot and pour sauce on top, making sure to completely cover the pork.

3. Cook on high for 4 hours (if you use thawed pork, change as you need). Enjoy!

*Notes: I updated the recipe with 1/4 cup chicken broth and cooking for only 4 hours, because our pork chops were a little too dry, but the flavor was excellent!

Should be yummy!

This week is busy (to say the least!) in getting things done before we leave for Montreal next week to spend the holidays with my brother and his family, so I’m keeping today’s post short and sweet to finish up some projects. Have a great rest of your afternoon!

Questions: What holiday activities do you enjoy doing? What is your favorite slow-cooker recipe? I love looking at Christmas lights, going to Nevada City’s Victorian Christmas and of course, snow skiing and tubing (though, those can be done at other times during the year!).

REMINDER: There is still time to win a box of the BEST popcorn EVER!! Angie’s Popcorn giveaway ends tonight at 8 p.m. PST!! Click here to enter!

Healthy Living Blogs! December 4, 2012

Look who got into Keenan’s kitchen stuff! Keenan was happy to find “Peanut” this morning, but he wasn’t happy that she was playing with his things. When he found her, he said, “I need to put this back!” I could hardly take a picture, because he immediately started putting his stuff back in his kitchen! After he finished “cleaning up” as he said, I asked him if he liked where “Peanut” was this morning and he said, “No, I want her on the door!” It was too funny!

Speaking of kitchen stuff, today I’m so excited to be featured on Healthy Living Blogs for their Healthy Living Tuesdays series, “Health For the Whole Family!” Healthy Living Blogs is a community of thousands of Healthy Living bloggers that come together to encourage and support once another, whether who live locally, across the country or across the world.  I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, so I’m delighted to share it with all of you! Please take a moment to check out my post and share it with your friends and family members!

If you are new here, grab a cup of coffee or tea and stay awhile. Being a mommy doesn’t always mean sacrifice: In order to be your best self, you have to fulfill your needs, such as eating healthy and nourishing foods, staying active, and doing things to treat yourself. Fit ‘N’ Well Mommy chronicles my day-to-day juggling act of meeting my needs and the needs of my family. I invite you to explore the site and check out topics that might be of interest to you, especially if you have little ones who are just starting solids, or if you are struggling with breast feeding. Maybe you are having a tough time with establishing routines. Or you might be way past the baby stage, and just want to find ways to get into better shape and eat healthier foods. If you are pregnant, check out ways to stay active, eat healthy, and learn about my birth story. I hope you will join me, especially on the tough days where all we look forward to is having a much-needed glass of wine and some dark chocolate once the kiddos are in bed. If you don’t have any kids, I’m sure you know a mom who could use some support and ideas that are found here. Feel free to share this blog with them!

Friday Favorites and Fitblogger! November 9, 2012

Happy Friday! Are you one of the lucky ones who has Monday off in honor of Veteran’s Day?

I’m SO excited it is Friday because we have some fun things planned for the weekend and today is my feature post for Fitblogger!! If you haven’t checked it out, you can see my post here. I was so thrilled to be asked to be a featured blogger! Fitblogger is a community of healthy living bloggers. It is a place to meet other bloggers, support one another and gain great information pertaining to health, fitness and  blogging.

As for the weekend, we are doing a little more celebrating for my birthday, starting with tomorrow at my in-laws. My mother-in-law is making a special brunch for my birthday with the most yummiest beverage ever, Cafe Bon, a mocha mixed with Amarula (a liquor similar to Kahlua) with homemade whipped cream! I can’t wait! On Sunday, we are going wine tasting in Amador County with some friends. My husband is planning it, so I’m not sure what all he has planned; it should be fun!

Tonight, we are going to have an “at home date night” after Keenan goes to bed, catching-up on our favorite TV shows that we missed during the week. I’m not sure what we are having for dinner: either stuffed bell peppers (since I have a couple that need to be used) or something with sweet potatoes. We’ll see…

This morning, I went to the box to do some skill work of cleans, squat cleans and split jerks. We are heading back to the box this afternoon for the WOD. My shoulders are definitely feeling it from this morning, so this afternoon shall be interesting! At least I have two days off!

Now, onto “Friday Favorites!” If you missed my post from a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start a new theme for my Friday’s posts. Every Friday, I plan to reflect back on my favorite moments and eats from the past week, as part of my new focus of living more in the present and cherishing each and every moment.

Favorite Moments:

• Keenan having fun taking a bubble bath!

• Playing piano and singing with Keenan. He even made “Baba” play the piano!

• Keenan sporting his new “Elmo” outfit, thanks to Nonna!

Favorite Eats:

• Turkey Meatloaf in the Crock Pot

• Turkey Meatloaf Melts

• Loaded Pumpkin Protein No Oat Oatmeal

Have a great weekend!

Questions: What were some of your favorite moments and eats from this week? Any suggestions on what to do with two green bell peppers or sweet potatoes for our dinner tonight?

*REMINDER: There is still time to enter the Fiber Gourmet giveaway! Contest ends Nov. 13th at 8 p.m. PST!! To enter, click here!