Early bird gets the muffin

5:11 a.m.  That's what time my 4 year old was up this morning.  Dang time change....  I knew this was coming!

Anyhow, as the old saying goes, when life hands you ripe bananas and an extra hour in the day, you make banana muffins!  However...I am trying to lose about 5 pounds before the holidays start, so I had to make these HEALTHY and DELICIOUS and that, my friends, is what they are!  I'll include the recipe below... 

Here's how I spent the first lovely hours of daylight darkness this morning:

I *think* these are ready to be mashed.... ;)

Note the time on the clock:  6:44 AM  I'd already been up for an hour and a half, people!
also....using whole wheat flour and flax seed!  Don't be afraid...your kids will never know....they are incredibly tasty!

Kitchen Tip #243:  use an ice cream scoop to put batter into the muffin pan.  No mess! Perfectly portioned! I'm so excited!!!!

Batch 1 out of the oven by 7:22 AM.  I have a group of eager taste testers at the ready.

YUM.  I made a double batch so we are going to be snacking on these for a while.  They freeze well...put them in a ziplock baggie and pull them out one at a time--defrost in the microwave for about 30 seconds and you have a warm HEALTHY muffin to snack on!

HEALTHY BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup flax seed (milled)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Combine flour, flax seed, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, stir together the bananas, eggs, brown sugar, applesauce, and vanilla.

Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture--a little at a time.  Stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.

yield:  18 muffins

Source:  K Mickelsen, M Douthit

Time change...and just how silent is a cemetery?

Saturday mornings!!!  Love them....for now, anyways--we are getting ready to start our youth basketball season (2 kids on 2 different teams will positively EAT UP your Saturdays!) which leads right into youth baseball/softball season, so our chill Saturdays are about to go away until June.  Wah wah wah. Anyhow, it is 10:00 in the morning and I'm still in my PJ's drinking a little Diet Coke and enjoying the pace of sleeping until 7:00 and then staying in bed until 8:00 just because I can.

It's all about to change.

Tonight.

Daylight Savings goes bye-bye.  :(

I wasn't dreading it too bad until I was re-reading some vintage "Welcometomyblog" from a few years back.....apparently I came up with a few reasons why I strongly dislike setting the ol' clocks back.

Reason #93

Reason #82

Reason #46

Some people really buy into this whole "extra hour of sleep" gimmick....but I've not seen benefit of that in several years. I've always had early bird children and they don't seem to mind what the clock says. For instance, my child who is finally (FINALLY!) finally sleeping consistently until 6:30 or 7:00 am (after years of 5:45 am, we're so grateful!!!)....well, 6:30 will be 5:30 tomorrow morning and we'll start this cycle all over again.  Wah wah wah.

Alright, that's it for your friendly reminder about setting the clocks back tonight.  I can't end on a down-note...so I'll just say that strep throat has now been banished from my house and pneumonia has been all but squashed!  Things are looking up after a very long week at home with sick peeps. (Here's how bad things got:  I was so desperate to get out of the house last night BY MYSELF that when Michael got home from work, I left to go running.  In a cemetery.  At dusk. By myself.  I was SO desperate for some alone time that I couldn't even make myself walk into the gym to get my workout!  I wanted to be in a spot where there was no shot that anybody would talk to me.  FYI:  a cemetery is good for that.)

Warning: Wii Fit might cause trauma to your otherwise healthy marriage

The other night we were at some friends' house and they have a fancy, new, cutting edge and wonderful Wii Fit. I'd never tried one out and was anxious to do so.

However, I was wearing my new Calvin Klein's that fit "just so" and we'd just eaten lots of cheap Mexican food.

Not usually a good time to try it out, but anyways, it was my chance. I eagerly volunteered to go first, not knowing what was involved.

Did I mention that I was wearing jeans? And we'd just eaten fajitas galore.

So I hopped onto the board and immediately it starts asking very personal questions. Little did I know they were about to broadcast my BMI to the whole crowd. Yes, my BMI. Dang myself for volunteering to go first! That "go-getter" attitude gets me in trouble more often than not, and this was such an opportunity.

So, once my BMI was shouted from the highest hill in middle Tennessee, the Wii Fit asks me to pick a trainer and he works with me through some balance exercises. He's about to tell me my Wii Fit age.

Jeans + Mexican food = bad Wii Fit experimentation combination

My Wii Fit Age? Why, do you REALLY want to know? Really?

OK, but only because I trust you and know you won't laugh at me like my husband did.

55

Yes, that's in years. 55 years old. I want a do over.

That night as we got into bed, my husband looked at me and said, "I've never shared a bed with a 55 year old woman before."

"Good night, dear."

Treadmill + Cookie Dough = ????

Going to a cookie swap tonight. I made the dough this morning before I left for the Y to workout.

I picked up my friend Micah to go pound the treadmill and felt the need to alert her to the fact that I had just consumed an incalculable amount of cookie dough. Before I would drive any further, I needed assurance that if I upchucked on the treadmill she wouldn't abandon me. There's nothing worse than throwing up and having nobody there to console you. Am I right on that or what!

Thankfully I finished the workout, came home and cooked said cookie dough....well, part of it anyways. The rest is on my waist, hips and thighs.

Merry Christmas.

Sonic Burgers?!?

Today was just plain crazy, and it ain't over yet. (Yes, this English major does know that "ain't" is not appropriate, but I just couldn't resist using it here.)

To summarize the day thus far:

• Took Maddy to school
• went to the Y [to get more Spark points, of course]
• lunch @ Panera with Amy & Sarah [where I did quite well in making some healthy food choices, thank you Sparkpeople]
• Target [to purchase the new HSM3 soundtrack, of course]
• Did my civic duty and voted (they let you vote early here in TN)
• Took my first load to the recycling drop off place (I'm still going green! 1 week strong...)
• Attempted to get a flu shot @ Walgreens. Waited for half hour while they kept assuring me I would be ushered right in...they were almost ready....any minute now... I finally had to leave with no flu shot since it was preschool pick up time
• Now, I'm home for a quick blog entry & a shower before going to parent-teacher conference in an hour
• After that, I'll come home and throw 3 kids into the van to head out to soccer practice at 6pm

So, in order to make dinner a breeze tonight, I thought we'd just swing by the Sonic right next to the soccer field. After all, it is Tuesday night and you get 5 Sonic Burgers for $5.95 on Tuesday nights.

Great deal, right? Quite a bargain, I'd say.

In my attempt to stay right on track with my SparkPeople plan, I checked the calories on a Sonic burger so I could go ahead and log in my dinner calories.

It may be a bargain for your wallet, but it is no bargain for the waistline.

Dang Sonic...540 CALORIES for one Sonic burger with ketchup!

I was shocked.

Plan B?

It only takes a spark...

I can run, but I can't hide. Well, actually, maybe if I did run, I could hide. Read on to see what I mean:

My old, old, old, old, OLD friend "7 pounds" has found me once again. We go way back. WAY WAY WAY back. Before "Body by Baby", I managed to stay relatively fit. Then, this thing called "Approaching Middle Age" kicks in, along with the "Metabolism Brakes" gift set that you get for your 30th birthday.


So, in order to make sure my other old friend "10 pounds" doesn't find me as well, I am going to be hiding on this great new (to me) website called "Spark People." Oh, and I'll also start hanging with my good pal Lynn, the dietician, once again. [She's with this great program at the Y called "Action with Balance." It's a 12 week program in which you get on track with your eating/exercising and meet with a dietician once a week. Generally speaking, I believe after 12 weeks you're supposed to move on with your life and continue with these great new habits you've formed.]


Wouldn't you know, I am now signed up for my FIFTH (yes, that's 5) session of Action with Balance. I am apparently a slow learner on attaining that balancing action. My first round was about 3 or 4 years ago, so I do like to space them out a bit...


Back to Spark People: It's a VERY fun website. Track your foods, exercise, chat with other "losers." I am still investigating the different features, but one I'm especially excited about is this trophy they give you when you've earned 100 points. (You earn points by drinking 8 cups of water a day, making recipes from their website, logging your food, etc). No, it's not a real trophy...just some clip art/icon you get on your Spark People log in page. Doesn't sound motivating? Oh, just sign up and you'll see how addicted you get to earning points all to see this little trophy thing show up!

Anybody want to join in my quest to say goodbye to "7 pounds"?


Oh and one last thing...No snarky comments if you see me indulging in something that's not found in the lower half of the food pyramid... Deal? Deal.