Body Rock Workout

I've discovered a new workout plan and videos and I LOVE it so far. I just finished my first week and it was soooo good. It's called body rock tv and you go to bodyrocktv.com and do her workouts or follow along with her each week. It's 12-15 minutes, four different exercises at 50 seconds each with 10 second in between and you repeat 3x. Each day she offers a quick three minute bonus video. The thing I love about it is every day it's so different so there's muscle confusion, which is the best way to see results. You're always doing something new and it's quick. You can obviously go at your own pace and go slower if you need to. The second thing I love about it is most of the videos you can do anywhere and utilize things you have in that room. For instance, she posted one video when she was in Mexico or at some resort and did it by the pool and used huge water bottles as her weight and she still had a good workout. I did half a video in the motorhome when we were traveling the gulf coast and the next day I was sore. So I'm tellin' ya if you're bored with your workouts or don't have an hour to devote to working out then try this.
http://www.bodyrock.tv/

New Things and Old Things Revived

I have a few new "finds" that I wanted to share with you all! I love finding good deals and/or unique items that may not be the greatest deal, but I still like them a lot.

When Nick and I visited California in September, we had the chance to stop by our friends new shop Apples and Oranges at the OC Mart Mix in Costa Mesa. This is a little blurb from their facebook page that explains what the store is all about: Apples & Oranges is a non-profit organization which allows artist, designers, and charitable organizations to be able to have a place to showcase their products with a purpose.

They really have great stuff and I came home with this little hand made pottery item that is a little jewelry dish. It sits right next to my bathroom sink and I put rings and earrings in it. How cute is it?!?!

I love it and I also love supporting local artists(even thought I'm not local to Costa Mesa anymore). If you live in Orange County, then you should check it out.




My other new "find" it this set of teak wood bowls (six small bowls and one large) at a local shop here in Skiatook called The Shop Out West.  They carry all sorts of stuff, antiques, unique furniture, guitars, dolls and lots of other items. I stop in every once in a while to see what new stuff is for sale. I think I scored with this bowl set for $20. It needs a little TLC, but nothing a little mineral oil can't fix. They will be as good as new once I am done with them. As you can see I am using the large bowl for the ridiculous amount of onions I have right now. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to buy onions at Sams Club.


Lastly, I decided to work on my kitchen decor a little and went to Hobby Lobby to see what I could find. I ended up with 3 really great items that fit so well!  I got this lovely rooster and 2 spindle candle holders. See—aren't they fun!

And the pretty Royal Copenhagen plate on the left has been sitting in a cupboard hidden, but now it is on display on top of my kitchen cabinets. This china has been passed from generation to generation. Makes me think of family and Christmas time when we would have meals on this china. 

Thats all for now!

-Court 

Our First Gulf Coast Trip

My mom and Ron invited us on our first Gulf Coast trip. We flew into Dallas and had a couple days to enjoy Fort Worth. We went to a TCU game, tailgated and had a blast even though TCU lost. That night we started our journey trip. They bought a motor home back in February so we took that and of course miss pregnant Chloe came along as well. Chloe is their chocolate lab who is expecting the first weekend of November and Chet and I will be getting one of the puppies for Christmas. We cannot wait!!!!! Our first dog together. I’m so excited.

We spent a couple days in New Orleans and it was my first time there. Let me start by saying it was very unique. It’s a great city, AMAZING food, history and lots of places to see and visit but it is one crazy party town. For me, it’s the kind of city you go to visit once and don’t need to ever go again. We had amazing Cajun food, seafood, Caribbean food, French food and that was the best part. We visited the Garden District, Warehouse District, Bourbon Street, the Dome, and casinos.

After we had enough in New Orleans we headed to Destin, Florida. It’s a beautiful city and we all loved it here. We stayed in an RV park right on the gulf coast. You could see the beach from our campsite. The sand was white as snow and the water was so clean, clear and warm. In a nutshell, the beaches were amazing! We spent most of our days on the beach swimming, kayaking, fishing, walking along the beach (or jogging), relaxing and of course eating delicious food. We had great seafood meals, ate right on the water, played corn hole and enjoyed some yummy wine. One evening we took a sunset boat cruise, saw dolphins and had a blast. That evening we ate at a restaurant over the water that decorated their walls with thousands and thousands of dollars. It was a basic and local restaurant that was known for their fresh oysters. The food was very good! That night we plated shuffle board and had a great time.

If you’ve never been to New Orleans I recommend going at least once, and Destin should definitely be added on your bucket list. It was rated top ten of the prettiest places to visit in the U.S. 

Will post photos once I download them onto my laptop at home!

All Things Pumpkin

I absolutely love fall. But I am pretty sure I already blogged about that. The other part of fall that I love includes baking / cooking with pumpkin. These recipes are great for fall! It makes you want to sit next to the fire with a good cup of coffee. Oooh and I love coffee too!

This pumpkin bread recipe is phenomenal and I have been making it for several years. Some new recipes that I  tried include pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin pie oatmeal and both were fantastic. 

Extra Moist Pumpkin Bread

Makes 2 loaves.

Ingredients:

4 beaten eggs

3 cups sugar

1 cup oil

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups pumpkin (1 lb can)

2/3 cup water

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350

Mix all ingredients. Pour into loaf pans and bake for 60-70 minutes.

Option: Add cream cheese frosting.  But it really doesn’t need it.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 cup buttermilk pancake mix ( I cheated and used a mix)

1 cup cold water

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Nonstick vegetable cooking spray

Butter, room temperature

In a medium bowl, whisk pancake mix, water, pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger until just blended (do not over mix; mixture should be lumpy).

Spray a heavy griddle with nonstick spray and heat griddle over medium heat. Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter onto griddle to form each pancake. Cook for 2 minutes or until bubbles appear, then turn pancakes over and cook for 2 minutes longer. Transfer pancakes to plates. Top with butter and serve with warm syrup.

*Amaretto Syrup Option – Nick decided to get fancy a make a nutty flavored syrup to go along with the pancakes. We have 100% maple syrup in the fridge, so he mixed 1 cup of the syrup with 3 Tbsp of Amaretto and heated in on the stove top. We had to let it simmer a while to cook out some of the alcohol. But it was very tasty. 

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

I found this recipe on pinterest and the original recipe is here.

I made a few changes, so here is my receipe.

Ingredients:
1 serving oatmeal (cooked) I used ½ cup Old Fashioned Oats
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 dash cinnamon
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash ginger
1 dash cloves
1 splash almond milk (or more)

If not sweet enough, add splenda or more agave nectar.

When the oatmeal is finished cooking add the pumpkin puree, brown sugar and spices and cook to heat.

Add a splash of milk to cool the oatmeal and to get it to the consistency that you prefer.

More Appetizers to try

-- Healthy Cheese balls

Gotta try this...string cheese chopped into bite size pieces, dipped in milk and bread crumbs, baked at 425 for 8-10 minutes- serve with marinara sauce! It's baked not fried... Which means healthy! ;)

-- Sausage Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

6 servings

4 net carbs per serving

1 pound ground Italian sausage (or regular pork or whatever appeals to you)

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (original recipe used parmesan)

1 pound jalapenos, halved lengthwise and seeded

1 green onion, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place sausage in a skillet over medium heat, and cook until evenly brown. Drain grease.  In a bowl, mix the sausage, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and green onion. Spoon about 1 tablespoon sausage mixture into each jalapeno half. Arrange stuffed halves in a baking dish.  Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and lightly browned.

These were my favorite and they were all eaten very quickly.

-- Healthy Cauliflower Poppers

What you will need:

•               2 heads of cauliflower

•               1/4 cup of olive oil

•               1 1/2 teaspoon of salt

•               1 teaspoon of pepper

Directions:

1.             Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2.             Wash and clean the cauliflower. Cut off and discard the stem. Cut the cauliflower up into small pieces.

3.             In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the cauliflower pieces and thoroughly coat each piece.

4.             Place cauliflower pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for one hour and turn 3 times during cooking until each piece has a nice brown coloring. The browner they are the better.

Remove from oven and enjoy!

State Fair and Rodeo

The Tulsa State Fair is going on right now and since Nick and I moved to Oklahoma, it has been a tradition to attend the Rodeo each year which is at the fairgrounds. It is so much fun! It really is a good deal too. You get into the fair, ticket to the rodeo and the Jake Owen concert after for 30 bucks! Although, food and drink prices are always hefty.

How cute is my hubby! He looks great in a cowboy hat.

One of the great things about going to the fair is all the people watching entertainment! Seriously. Its interesting. People come from all over the state to go to the fair so you definitely get to see people are not used to the City. And for all my California friends, you would not believe how much camo clothing you see everywhere. I am not talking army camo, but hunting camo. It is really common and still makes me laugh sometimes.

Now, for fair food, we are not huge on trying all the different fried foods, there are typically just a couple things we like to try. Nick found this one last year and we went back to have it again.

Fried Cookie Dough - its really good. Really really good.

The Rodeo was great! So entertaining.

 You see this bull bucking!?!?! Crazy.

 The boys in our group.

And us ladies. 

After the rodeo was the Jake Owen concert. He is great live! Sometimes artists don't sound as good live, but not the case with him. We had a great time listening and Nick even dance with me. :) I absolutely love when he dances with me. 

Hope you enjoyed hearing about our fair and rodeo experience. Oh and I got to wear my favorite cowboy boots, so that was awesome. But I didn't get them in any of the pictures. Next time!

~ Court