Pizza Time

I love pizza.  I can't deny it.  I especially love take out pizza.  In the past I've made home-made crust but havent yet found a recipe I love.

Last night I had all the fixings for pizza, minus the crust and wanted to use up what I had and not let anything go to waste.  So I pulled out a whole wheat flatbread (Flatout Multi-grain brand) and topped with tomato sauze, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder and a little italian seasoning.  Then topped it without about 1/2 cup diced bell peppers and 1 1/2 ounces of mozzarella and baked for 10 minutes.

The pizza was delish!  Including the sauce,peppers, cheese and flat bread this pizza cost me 1.00 to make.  Compare that to a frozen pizza or take out and the price savings is obvious.  Plus this taste so fresh and was very nutritous! 

A bargain for your pocket and your waistline!

Shop Til You Drop - Halloween Edition

So everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Holidays.  I wait all year for Halloween and Christmas.  Every year when new holuday stuff comes out I admire it all...but I almost never buy anything.  Why?

I hardly buy anything because last year I bought almost everything I could need on clearance.

It's a tradition with my mom and I which we do for all Holidays.  We've been watching the clearance at Target since Halloween and today it 75% off so we got up bright and early and went to 4 Targets today and boy did we get some awesome stuff!  I also got a few things at Party City and Kohls, but the majority was from Target.  I should also mention that this year it was especially important for me to stock up because next October I will be married (and we will hopefully be in our own home) meaning there will be no money for decorations, so I knew I had to get everything I could possibly want on clearance for next Halloween.

Here were all the bags we brought home with us today ready to be sorted!

I don't like scary things, but I sure do love pumpkins!  The majority of what I bought was orange and black with pumpkins, obviously.  The things in the back are wall stickers, then a cute wooden boo sign, several kinds of garland and a cute matching banner and plate.

Here is my idea of spooky stuff! lol  I got a bat dish towel, a neat holographic picture, the blue and pink things are spiders that you untwist, a shiny green wooden spider and a cute little ghost.

I was very excited to find these.  The thing with castle is a huge wall decor, the round thing has pumpkins on it and hangs from the ceiling and the the pumpkin garland in the middle matches.  Then of course one can never have too many cute window clings.

I wanted to get a head start on trick or treaters so I got goodie bags, temporary tattoos and neat little neon stretchy frogs.  I also got two sizes of cupcake liners for holiday baking.

And lastly my few random items - a cute pumpkin re-usable bag, some pretty autumn dish towels, 3 boxes of led lights and a nice pumpkin carving kit since ours busted this year.

Over all it was tons of fun and I bought even more than I thought I would.  Between 4 Targets, Kohls and a party store there was more slection than I had anticipated.  I do now need another storage box to pack it all away until next year though.

So through all this you're probably wondering "But how much did she spend?!"  Well let me tell you.

The total for everything would have been 152.00 plus tax.  With clearance and coupons I paid 30.25!  Man I love bargain shopping and I'm so excited that next year after we're married we'll be able to pull out tons of matching new decor for our new home.

Bento Boxes and New Foods

So last night I stumbled across (and become completely enamored with) anotherlunch.com  The detail she puts into her kid's lunches and snacks is amazing.  As someone who loves tiny things and cute things I died and spent all night on the site and was convinced I needed a bento box and some of those cute accessories.  To me making food cuter and more fun might make eating smaller amount seem less blah and more yay.

So in betweenclasses I headed to an Asian market convinced they would have bento boxes or accessories.  Alas they did not have anything.  What they did have however was samples!

I didnt try everything (I do not like fish or seafood which were some of the samples) but I decided to be adventurous and try some new things.

The first were these Korean Rice Crackers.  I was hesitant since I didn't know the ingredients or flavors.  My mom tried a pink one.  It didn't taste like much.  There was a funny older lady who yelled "they good!" at me but I didn't actually think it tasted like anything.  So I decided to get my own and tried a green one.  Mistake, it was seaweed!

So to try and cleanse my palate of the awful seaweed flavor I tried these crackers.  The plain were good but apparently I am NOT a fan of wasabi.  These werent really out of my comfort zone since my grandpa eats an asian snack mix like this sometimes.

Then I tried some chestnuts! I've always wondered what a chestnut tasted like so I got excited when I saw it...then I got hesitant because they looked funny (I can be judgemental with the looks of food).  I ended up trying them though and they weren't bad.  Kind of like a nutty bean.  I wouldn't eat them on purpose again, but not bad.

I also tried pickled garlic which was STRONG.  I saw two women pop several pieces quickly and prcoeed to tell me how good it was but I could barely nibble off the end and I love garlic.  I thought I took a picture but apparently it didnt save and considereding the women doing samples seemed to find it strange I was taking pictures of the food I decided not to go back.

All in all it was a fun experience...and I'm still determined to learn more about these bento boxes.

Before and After

I made a post last week about from 8 year weight loss to maintenance to weight loss journey.  It's been difficult, enlightening, exciting and overwhelming all at once.  It has also been a long time since I was 300 pounds.  Sometimes I genuinely think I forget I was ever that heavy and focus on the 10-20 pounds I'd still like to lose.

Last night I realized that completely accepting who I was and where I started is empowering.  I used an online photo editing service to create a before and after photo of myself and I told myself I was going to share it.  So here I am.

Age 15 - Age 24

It's like everything in life, you have to look at how far you've come not how far you have left to go.  Be proud of the journey.  Sharing this photo for me is about accepting who I was, but even more who I am now.

New look, New Name and a Great Food Bargain

First, yes there's another new look and new blog title.  I've been struggling to find the right combo of diet and shopping but and I finally came up with this and I'm very happy with it.  Hopefully everyone else likes it too!

Now on to the post.  The only thing I love more than healthy food is FREE healthy food.  My mom and I are big bargain shoppers.  We scout out sales and clearnaces and definitely utilize any and all coupons we can.

Today at Walmart we stumbled across a fantastic deal.  All of these slimfast bars and shakes were marked down to either 1.00 or 1.50 and to make it even better we'd been saving some slimfast coupons for when they went on a good sale.  We had one coupon for 1.50 off and 5 for 1.00 off meaning we got all of these shakes are bars for a whopping .50 cents!

I think nutrition bars get a bad rap for being candy bars in disguise...but in a way I think that's the beauty of them.  They've got some sugar to cure a sweet tooth with a good ratio of fat, protein and carbs.  Then add in the fact that they're usually packed with vitamins and sometimes fiber and they're a great night time snack.  They're also great for people on the go.  Personally I love to keep one in backpack because I can eat them in class quickly and without making noise.  Definitely a great tide me over til real food is available!

Halloween Ready

It is almost Halloween and I'm ready!  I remember growing up Halloween was one of the best times of the year.  Me and all my cousins always went together and came home with so much candy it was insane.  Between the 7 of us dumping out our buckets there was candy everywhere.

Remember how much fun I had as a child makes me eager to help pass on the tradition to other kids.  That being said, keeping candy around is not a good option for me and even though I know kids will eat tons of candy I dont feel good giving out tons of it when I dont think its so healthy.

So this year we've got an assortment; some lower sugar candies with calcium in them, a tiny bit of candy Halloween sticker treats, play dough for the really little kids, tons of fun Halloween rings and individual bags of pretzels and dried fruit.  I can't wait to hand them out!

What are you all giving out this year?

Dried Fruit, A Must!

We all know fresh fruit is a great option, but it’s not available all year round and isn’t always portable. Thus why I love dried fruit!

Dried blueberries are one of my favorite things ever.  I call them one of my happy foods because I enjoy eating them so much and always smile after knowing they’re not only delicious but super healthy.   I just found the dried cherries at Costco yesterday for the first time and was really excited because they can be so pricey at the grocery store. 

I call dried fruit nature’s candy.  They’re sweet and chewy and I love them as a quick portable snack in my purse or backpack, or just when need a little sweet snack.

My initial reaction the first time I bought the blueberries was “that’s too much money” then I realized that if you look at how many blueberries it took to make the bag, and how many servings are in each bag, it’s actually a health bargain!