According to Berni

Well today was a relaxing day filled with some shopping (for ingredients), baking, hair cuts and photo ops.

I thought we’d get an early start on the baking this morning but when girlie got up she had a completely different idea.  It seems the cousins were all over at grandma’s and that was where she wanted to be…

at least until they started playing with tennis rackets and there weren’t enough for everybody.  I guess she drew the short stick, was born last or was the only girl… who knows what those boys used to decide she didn’t get one.  All I know is it sent her back home with tear filled eyes…

Good thing mom always has a Plan B!!   How about we go get your hair cut??   Woo Hoo!!  She was in!

Please try to ignore the longish bangs… seems Mom was too engrossed in a magazine when the nice lady tried to trim them and girlie politely said “not the bangs…my mommy trims those”…   I didn’t even notice until we were driving away and asked… she cracks me up!!

Well now that we’ve been spit shined we can head over to Sprouts for some ingredients!

Because Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies is what we have on the agenda for this afternoon.

I don’t understand why we can’t just eat oatmeal cookie dough for breakfast…  I mean it’s got all the ingredients of a good breakfast.  Oats, eggs, butter… ok so there’s some sugar and flour in there but it tastes sooooo good.

Oh happy girl!!

And for all you non meat eaters out there… here’s a little turkey even YOU can enjoy!!  Crochet with love by an elderly customer for my daughter.

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!   May your day be filled with delicious food, enjoyable company and plenty of love, laughter and wine to get you thru the day!!

xoxo, Berni

What is wrong with me??

wait, don’t answer that…

I don’t think I really want to know.  But one thing I DO know is that I’ve completed 4 weeks of my 15 week half marathon training…. 4 weeks without missing one single run, on Sunday I had a fabulous run of 7 miles, my farthest yet.

This morning I had a 2.5 mile run on the training plan, it’s a taper week and 2.5 miles has now become easy peasy.  The alarm goes off at 5:30 and it’s time to run.  But wait. What’s that I hear??   WIND!!  Not just easy breezy wind but WIND, Gale force winds!!  Nope, no thank you… I’m not going out in that.  So I lay down for an extra 30 min of sleep and when I get up at 6:00 NO WIND!!  WTF??   No wind??  Well now it’s too late to run…so I leave for work.  And the thought of missing my 2.5 mile run has not left my mind once… it is eating me up!  Really?  Must I obsess about EVERYTHING??

Instead of saying “well, you’ve done a great job so far, you’ll be fine without this short run”  I obsess about missing it…

Now, I’ve made up my mind that I am going to do it tomorrow provided there are no winds, which normally wouldn’t be a big deal except that I have a 5k on Thursday which means 2 days in a row of running…  lord I hope my shins can take it!

Now,  for my Biggest Loser snack of the week…

a cup of mud!!!

Just kidding,  it’s a delicious chocolate banana smoothie.

1 c Hemp milk

2 small frozen bananas

1 handful of spinach

1T Hersheys Dark cocoa powder

Mmmmm Mmmmm Good!!

Tomorrow the little lump o’ love and I will be baking some cookies and making a side dish that includes corn and wild rice for Turkey day.  It’s going to be a fun day of cooking and spending time with her and I am SO looking forward to 5 days off!!

Have a wonderful evening!!

xoxo

Whew!  What a week!

I wasn’t gone.

I was here in spirit!

It’s been quiet a busy week for some reason.  Looking back I can’t really say where the time went except that it wasn’t spent blogging…  In a nutshell it’s been up at dawn, run, drive, work, drive, cook, clean, sleep, repeat…. with some eating thrown in for good measure.

I did meet the ‘boy’ in my oldest daughters life and I really like him.  He is a very nice young man and it seems like they really like each other but apparently they aren’t boyfriend and girlfriend,  she made sure to tell me they were just ‘hanging out’ .   I guess that’s what the kids are calling it these days.  All I know is it makes me feel so old and out of it…  Maybe that’s why I’m still single,  I’ve been thinking I was missing a ‘boyfriend’ when I was really missing a ‘hanger’ not to be confused with the ones I have in my closet apparently…

It’s been a very quiet weekend here, the 2 big kids went snowboarding and it’s just me and little girlie.  We went and saw New Moon today and she reminded me of the teenagers you see screaming at the Beatles-  she was in awe!

In food news,  this lovely little lady wanted tacos for dinner…  so while I made her the standard taco as she requested.  I tried something new with mine.   I heated my corn tortillas under the broiler with a bit of shredded cheese just like I would if I were making Cindy’s delish tacos except that I filled them with black beans and topped them with sliced avocado with a squeeze of lemon and some hot sauce…   OMG!   They were SO good!

I’ve been working towards eliminating meat from my diet for a couple months now and I am happy to say that I think I’ve done it.   I think it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve had meat.  I am still using cheese once in a while, eggs and yogurt occasionally but have even replaced milk with Hemp or Almond milk.  Hemp is by far my favorite.  I find it to be very creamy and the taste is yummy!

Ever since reading and re-reading Thrive this type of diet just feels right to me.   And I feel so good, I can’t complain!

Thanksgiving is coming up and while I fully intend to fill my belly full of mashed potatoes, yams and salad I am on the lookout for a protein source to bring… any suggestions??

After a day of running around I’m looking forward to a hot cup of tea and a soft pillow… my eyes insisted on popping open at 5:00am this morning and tomorrow my sorry arse has a date with sister on the trail for a 7 mile run YIKES!  6.2 miles is the farthest I have ever run so tomorrow will be a personal distance record.  I pray we have no wind this time and that the time flies like we are having fun!!

Have a lovely evening friends…

xoxo

Lions and tigers and WIND, oh my!!!

I hate wind.

I know HATE is a strong word but I HATE wind!!

I’ll take rain any day of the week over wind,  the rain just feels so cleansing but wind- it does nothing but dry me out, slow me down and cover me in grit!!  YUK!

But there was a 6 mile run on the training plan for today so sister and I headed out to the trail to tackle it head on…

So, ok well maybe Jillian wasn’t there PHYSICALLY, it was really my sister.  But this morning I swear Jillian Michaels was right behind me!   For those of you that watch The Biggest Loser, you’ve seen how Jillian makes the contestants put a rope around their waste and then she holds on to the ends of the rope and they have to run and drag her behind them… well that is what the last 3 miles of my run felt like this morning, I may as well have been dragging Jillian behind me.

We had a 3 mile out and back course today and the first 3 miles the wind was at our backs so it pushed us right along…but then we had to turn around and come back and face the wind head on…that my friends was pure torture.  Today I felt like those last 3 miles was survival of the fittest.  And I’m ashamed to say that there was a couple walk breaks somewhere between mile 4 & 6. Probably about 3,  I kept them VERY short and tried to keep my pace as fast as I could but geez, the wind was sucking the life right out of me…

My stats for this morning were

6.43 miles      duration 1:17

mile 1-  10:42

mile 2- 10:29

mile 3- 10:46

mile 4- 11:50

mile 5- 12:59

mile 6- 11:55

mile.43- 8:28 (cool down)

I’m off to wash off this grit and enjoy my day!

Have a wonderful Sunday

xoxo

Holy Guacamole Batman!  There was a whole lotta creatin going on here today!!  And Guacamole may or may not  have been one of the creations…

Black beans soaked overnight were put on to simmer early this morning.

Along with:

1 onion diced and saute’d in 1 T coconut oil

3 cloves garlic

1 T cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

sea salt to taste

4 cups Organic Vegetable broth

while the beans were a simmerin…. I had about 2 cups of this wonderful tonic, to which I added about 1 tsp coconut oil and 1-2 tsp of Agave….

Now that’s some good stuff.

Because the kitchen is still clean and it’s not even 9 AM let’s pull out the food processor and whip up some Mamabites,  gotta 6 miler planned in the morning after all, we may need em.

1/3 C Raw Cashews blended into pulp

8 dates

about 1/3 cup ground flax seeds

2T ground Hemp seeds

1 T Hershey’s Dark cocoa powder

dash cinnamon

and because I love me some Vanilla, about 1T of Madagascar Vanilla

blended until it was a big ball of brown goodness and put in the fridge to chill….

Now, because I’m nut much of a ‘bar’ eater I thought I’d make mine bite size, so I rolled out my dough

Geez, I better cut this up before my kids see it!

so I cut it into bite size pieces and put away for later.

Beans simmerin, tea drinkin, Mamabite a makin…  I don’t even know who I am anymore!

Just about the time I got these put away I heard the mailman,  that means MOVIES!!

Earlier this week Natalie posted about this movie and I was intrigued to say the least.    My family has had more than it’s fair share of the “C” word and it hits VERY close to home.   I have to say there was alot of great information but because I am ultra sensitive to it I couldn’t watch the whole thing.   I know that may sound like I’d rather burry my head in the sand and ignore it, and I promise that is NOT the case.   But for me I tend to get hung up on stuff and I am a constant worrier.  I realized I was chewing on my cuticles like they were Orville Redenbacher Popcorn and decided it was time to turn it off.   I will definitely look more into the Gerson Therapy because I think they are on to something with that but other than making daily improvements to my diet and doing all I can do to stay healthy there really isn’t any good that will come from the worrying.

After that, I felt the need to cook some more!!   So, taking Ali’s lead I went ahead and roasted this beauty

and made red lentil soup with green acorn squash.

1 onion saute’d in 1T coconut oil

1T Curry powder

1 can diced tomatoes

4 C Vegetable broth

salt and red pepper flakes to taste.

You’d think after all that cooking I’d be anxious to eat all of this but for some reason I’m not… maybe it’s all the tasting I’ve done, but whatever it is, I’m not all that hungry.   I’m actually feeling like a smoothie so I think that’s what I’ll make next.  I’ll enjoy it while watching my other movie,  Sunshine Cleaning

And because Brendan hasn’t steered me wrong yet, I will be adding Vega Smoothie Infusion to my smoothie!  If you haven’t tried it, I can tell you I really like it!   It adds alot in the way of protein, fiber, Omega 3’s and green foods and isn’t gritty like some protein powders can be.  It doesn’t change the taste of my smoothie either which I like because I like to taste the fruit.  It does add a green tint to it but hey, we’re not afraid of green smoothies right??

Love from ME…

xoxo

Today as we recognize those that have fought for not only our freedom but the freedom of others.  I will take a moment to remember my grandfather, my father and my uncles who risked their lives for my freedom.  I will also take a moment to recognize that in the coming year my daughter, my first born will be following in their footsteps.  It’s a brave thing they do for us, far braver than anything I will ever do in my lifetime.

Some days, most days I never even give freedom a single thought.

Freedom:  the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint

So this morning I reflect on the simplest things that I take for granted.  Like the fact that I can run thru the streets with bare legs, bare arms and a bare face and not give it a single thought.   Or that I can write whatever I want on a blog.  I can speak, read and listen to anything I want.  I can praise God and I can do nothing.  We have choices.  For that I am thankful.

I can even post silly pictures of myself waiving a flag-  but you must look closely to see the flag as it was waiving fast.

So today in honor or Veteran’s day I will excersize my right to watch a movie if I can sit still long enough, because 99% of my days are crammed too full anyway and I’ve already gotten my training run out of the way.   2.7 miles nonstop as the sun came up and that makes me happy.

Have a peaceful day my friends…

xoxo

Berni

we all scream for BANANA WHIP???

Ok so it doesn’t rhyme but look at it…makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

a little scoop of heaven in a bowl

Tonight The Biggest Loser is on and for some reason I always feel like snacking on something while I’m watching that show?!   I’m not much of a snacker otherwise so I find this quiet odd.  I’m sure it has something to do with the rebellious side of me.  “Look at me eating while y’all are working your tails off trying to lose a pound.”   I mean really, those are not even words I would ever speak.  But that’s what it feels like while I’m munching away while watching them work so hard.   So, in Biggest Loser style, I figured I might as well make my snack a healthy one.   Lucky for me I always have frozen bananas in my freezer…

pop 2 frozen bananas in the food processor

whizzzzzzzzz

teeny splash of hemp milk

whizzzzzzzz

about 1 tsp of Hershey’s Dark cocoa powder

whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

taste… Mmmmmmmmm   damn that is good stuff!!

snap photo

cover bowl

back into freezer to wait….

threaten kids lives if they touch my ‘ice-cream’

go fix dinner.

All that’s left to do is change my clothes, wash my face and plop myself in front of the TV with my Ice cream and I think I might just throw a few sliced almonds on top, may as well live it up right??

Enjoy your evening my friends- if anyone wants to run with me tomorrow, I’ll be on the streets at 6 AM.  See ya then!!

xoxo

Berni

***No children were harmed this evening,  the ice-cream remained untouched (good kiddos!)***

First things first….  Thank you Cindy for the scrum-ditly-uptious cup o’tea I’m enjoying as I type!!   She sensed I was having TEA ENVY and kindly sent me a few bags.  Of course the day after I got them I found the Holiday Teas in my Sprouts, isn’t that how it always happens??

lookie lookie it's a cookie (tea bag)!!

the cup says it all...

We started with a few of these beautiful little pumpkins.  They’re so adorable that I always am tempted to keep them as fall decor, I feel so guilty cutting into them.

After meeting it’s fate with my knife, this is what they were reduced to…

hello my pretties…

all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty together again… still applies even when it’s not an egg.

but would you look at all that tender pumpkin we got from 3 little pumpkins.  8 cups!!

and seeds… geez louise did we get seeds

roasted to perfection

Our harvest is in!!  The avocados are ripe!  There are still lots of smallish ones so I should be set for a while…

And the Habaneros, they WONT QUIT!!   I actually bought this teeny weeny little plant at the begining of summer as a joke!  And it has gotten HUGE I say…

It’s amazing what some worm compost will do to a plant!!   If ya haven’t already, I suggest you try it.

Back to the joke.  My dad makes THE BEST salsa, he makes it daily and living right next door to my parents, my kids and I usually have some daily.   One day he says “I think I want a My Space”  HUH?  What did you just say????

apparently he’s been hanging around the 13 year old grandkids and “heard about it”  this coming from the man who just got an ATM card THIS YEAR!!  I don’t know how they make it thru life sometimes!  Anyway, he’s also mentioned on more than one occasion he want’s to be known as Chili Willie (his name is Willie) , I guess he’s got an idea he thought would be good for My Space, all things salsa… Um No Dad, that’s not really what it’s about…  so I bought this plant as a joke for him…and now it wont stop!

In other news… Natalie @ NoNo2YoYo is having an awesome giveaway.  And she’s also doing some great work with her Project Feed Me campaign!!   It’s a great way for all of us to help out in a BIG way.  I signed up to purchase 2 items a week for 9 weeks and at the end of the 9 weeks which will be right before Christmas, I will take all my food items to a local food bank to help feed the less fortunate.  Most weeks you will not spend much more than $1 per item.  We are on week 5 this week and the item is Peanut Butter.   Imagine if we all did a small part what a BIG impact we could have as a group.  There’s still time for you to get involved and I’d be so grateful as I know she would also if you’d help!   You can either click on her link above or on the Project Feed me button.

Now, let’s talk RUNNING….   last week I said I wanted to Challenge myself to RUN all my training runs thru the end of the year.   So far so good!!   I ran a glorious 5.2 miles on Sunday with my sister and am happy to report I didn’t walk one single step!   It felt sooooo amazing, which is the best part of running- how amazing you feel afterward!

The training plan for this week calls for a 2.5 mile run a 3.5 mile run and a 6 miler on Sunday…

Have yourself a good sweat today and be good to yourself, your worth it!!

xoxo

Berni

This is how it goes,  I think about food,  I prepare food, I eat food… I don’t seem to photograph food…  it’s not something I do.   I’ll try harder.  What I do photograph is FUN.

This is what you get when you give a 9 year old a camera...

I believe kids need fresh air,  they need love and they need food (not necessarily in that order).  Nor is this all they need but so far I’ve managed to meet all these needs.  I’ve always said the dirtier the kid the better the day was!  There is nothing quiet like a dirty kid at the end of the day.   I have never been nor will I ever be the fussy, keep your hands and clothes clean type of mom.   I believe that is why we have soap and water… go play and if ya get dirty so be it.

So when I look out my back door and see this:

It makes mama happy!!!

The sweetest 9 year old I know, still in school clothes (minus the shoes) and the first place she goes is her ‘kitchen’ under the avocado tree….  What is she doing??   I’m glad you asked!   Today’s special happens to be a Raw Vegan dish.   Best of all, it’s Organic!

The basic recipe includes:

3 C dirt

1 1/2 C water

leaves for garnish

Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients and stir until smooth.   Transfer to serving dish and garnish with leaves.

Optional mix ins:

rocks

sticks

Be creative and have fun!!

And always remember…… to smile for the camera!!

And just for the record, she cleans up nicely…

How’s this for a flashback friday???    This is going WAAAYYYYYYY back,   back to the day when I was proud of those abs!!

As pure and innocent as they come...

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Go outside and get dirty would ya!  It’s good for the soul!

xoxo

Berni

Hellllooooo….

Well, today started bright and early at 5:30 with enough time to enjoy a cup of coffee before the sun came up.  I was laced up and caffeined up and ready to head out for my 1st ‘pre-work’ run of the season.  With 3 miles on the training plan for today and some pre-run nerves thanks to my last suckie run and hours that were spent laying wide awake last night when I needed to be sleeping.  I was determined to make this one count!

Nothing says warm up quiet like Eminem’s Lose yourself… and we’re off!!  I thought I’d dig out some good old Classic Rock to get me in the groove this morning.  Somewhere around mile 2 my neighbors were being wakened by some crazy runner girl singing (name that tune)

“She’s got a smile that it seems to me

Reminds me of childhood memories

Where everything was a fresh as the bright blue sky

Now and then when I see her face

It takes me away to that special place

And if I stared too long

I’d probably break down and cryyyy”

Yeah baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about- there’s just something about that song that get’s me going!

which was followed by this:

“She was a fast machine

She kept her motor clean

she was the best damn woman I had ever seen

she had the sightless eyes

telling me no lies

knockin’ me out with those American thighs”

I am happy to say that this was EXACTLY the kick in the pants I needed this morning.   As you can see by my numbers below, I found what appears to be my MOJO…right around mile 3.

My stats for this mornings run were

3.33 miles

37:32 minutes (including cool down)

mile 1 -  11:09

mile 2 – 10:51

mile 3 – 10:20

See that??

See those sub 11 miles??

That my friend is what I call PROGRESS!  And if I can maintain this kind of progress the sky is the limit!

Week 2 of training is off to a great start and I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to start the day like this!  I got my training run out of the way, am walking on cloud 9 and tonight it’s all about relaxing with my favorite girls and watching The Biggest Loser.

In other news:

Ali declared November “food journaling” month for herself, to help her keep track of calories in vs. calories out.  Reading that gave me the idea that we should all challenge ourselves this month.  We start off the new year with lots of goals and resolutions, why not end the year on that type of note??   What if each of us took that one thing that we had been thinking about doing or trying, losing a few pounds, eating more healthy, giving up meat, drinking more water, really the list is endless… if each of us took our one thing and commited to do it for the month of November or thru the end of the year… imagine the momentum we might have that could carry us over to the new year!  They say it takes 30 days to create a habit, sooooo whatta ya say??

I accept the challenge!   I am committing to RUNNING every training run with NO WALK BREAKS.  Of course if there is physical pain involved I will not ignore it, but because I think alot of my running rut has to do with the mental aspect of running I think this would be a good challenge for me.

How about you??

xoxo

Berni