Archive for December, 2009
…She Wears High Heels, I Wear Sneakers…
So I recently tried to synch my iPod Shuffle from my old computer onto my new laptop. After quite a while, I realized that it was going to take an act of Congress to be able to be able to keep the songs I already had on there – I had to do something called “synch and delete”. No matter, my husband assured me that I can reload all those songs onto the laptop and get them back on my iPod. The only thing I use the Shuffle for is to listen to music while working out, but on the rare mornings when it hasn’t been charged, my time at the gym has draaagggged by. So for the time being I decided to load it up with the songs I had already downloaded onto the laptop. The thing is, the only thing I had on there were songs to make mix CDs for my tween-ie daughters. But it was the week after Thanksgiving and I needed to get to the gym and any music was better than none (or the never quite right and too soft music they play at the gym).
So now, instead of “Anarchy in the UK”, I have “Party In The USA”. Instead of the Beastie Boys, I have Beyonce. Instead of listening to Morrissey wailing about how miserable he is now, I’m listening to Lady Gaga stuttering about her p-p-p-p-poker face. And you know what? I am having some great workouts! I didn’t realize how tiresome my usual music had become. While I wouldn’t have necessarily chosen what my daughters listen to, the new stuff has really has reenergized my routine. And when I do put my “mom” music back on my iPod it will be a different mix than the one I had before.
Lesson learned – changing up your gym routine keeps things challenging and prevents boredom. Changing up the music you listen to while you work out can help do the same thing.
Add comment December 9, 2009
Wacky Weeknights – Now Even More Hectic!
Holy moley – my last post was about preparing for Thanksgiving and now it is already December! As if life weren’t busy enough before, this is the month when things really get crazy and routines go out the window. In addition to the usual after school activities, my family has half a dozen holiday parties in the next several weeks, all sorts of Girl Scouts/skating/church activities, piano recital, holiday concerts, book projects, the baking of several hundred cookies, Christmas shopping and probably loads of other things I forgot. Whew! My tolerance for planning meals in the midst of all this is quite low. However, they days when it is suddenly 6 p.m. and I find myself with nothing to eat for dinner because I didn’t feel like planning and/or cooking I remember why it is so important to keep doing this. Even more than usual, it is important to have a family meal together since it can be easy for everyone to go 16 different directions and lose that chance to reconnect. And the last thing anyone needs during this season of hors d’oeuvres, cookies, cheese and drinks are the extra calories, fat and sodium that come with takeout meals. I find myself relying more and more on both my freezer and slow cooker now. Winter is the perfect season for the warm stews and casseroles you make in the slow cooker. By buying meat and frozen veggies ahead and freezing them you can just thaw out the day before, throw them in the slow cooker and have a tasty meal for dinner with minimal planning.
Last week I found myself at the store, but without much of a list. I was at the grocery with a good meat department, so I stocked up on things I can put in the slow cooker – cubes of stew beef, chicken thighs, pork loins. I also grabbed a bunch of in-season veggies (sweet potatoes, squashes, cabbages) because I know that these tend to store well and lots of the things that are in season now can stand up to being in the slow cooker for several hours. So the other day when we all went to the tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree and I had no plan for dinner I decided to pull some beef cubes out of the freezer, thaw them in the microwave and patch together a beef stew in my slow cooker. Voila – after a cold and windy day spent traipsing around a farm we were welcomed home to the delicious scent of warm meal.
Some recipes you really need to measure and be exact (pretty much anything you bake). But some recipes, especially stews and soups, you can just add a little of this and a little of that and come up with something delicious. This is the approach I took to this stew – what do I have in my kitchen that I can add to this beef to make something yummy? Experimenting can be fun and you may surprise yourself with what you can come up with. Here is the “recipe” (not entirely exact) of things I put into my stew. Use whatever veggies and seasonings you have on hand if you do not have these ingredients.
By using a little improvisation and a little planning you can make sure your family has a nutritious, delicious meal during the holiday season.
Add comment December 1, 2009
