Health and Fitness Friday : Food Glorious Food

It's Friday! That can only mean one thing.

Fitness

I have to start today by explaining me a little bit. I get bored easily. If I do the same thing day in, day out, I get bored and it stops being a challenge. I am also one of those people that is always jumping from one thing to another. This is a problem when your trying to get in shape. I get half way through and get bored and quit.  I started the 30 day squat challenge and had to stop that after day 5 because I wasn't able to walk let alone run. I started the 30 day ab challenge and I still trucking along with that but it wasn't enough on its own.

 I found something last weekend that truly is challenging me every time I do it. Every part of me hurts in a good way when I do it. Jillian Micheals 30 day shred is  what I'm talking about. I'm on day 5 today and can I tell you, for a 20 minute workout, it's a tough 20 minutes. I'm working my whole body. Strength, cardio and abs in a 20 minute workout is what I'm all about.

I haven't gotten any runs in this week just because the weather is crap again here. Rain and a hell of a lot of flies. Not ideal. I have a 5k walk coming up this Sunday. It's a fundraiser for Jasmins school. She has been begging me to take her on one of my runs with me but trying to explain to a 5 year old that she couldn't run 5k is near impossible. So, Sunday is going to be for us. I also have a 5k "Nun run" on the 23rd. I have to dress up in a Nun's outfit. I'm going to try get my sister to do this. She reads my bog sometimes so I hope she see's this. Ha!

Workouts this week.

Saturday : 30 day abs

Sunday :  Rest

Monday : 30 day shred + abs

Tuesday : 30 day shred +abs

Wednesday : 30 day shred

Thursday : 30 day shred + abs

Friday (today) : 30 day shred

Health

I've been pretty good this week. I have a Healthy, low fat Shepherds pie recipe for you guys. I love this dish. It's filling, full of veggies and it tasted so good. I also have a new smoothie recipe. I haven't tried this one but it looks amazing. 

Spinach-Mango Green Smoothie Recipe!

- 1 Large Ripe Banana

- 1 Cup Mangoes

- 1/2 Cup Strawberries

- 5 oz Spinach

- 1 1/2 cups Water

Whizz!

I have never eaten spinach and I would like to include it in my diet. It's really high iron.

 Have any of you ladies got any good recipes for spinach??

Another tip that I have for making smoothies is to put your fruit in the freezer for about 20 minutes before you whizz them. It makes your smoothie thicker and colder and it just tastes better. Yum!

 I'm not one for salads but this is one I came up with and I love it.

4 Bacon Rashers

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Onion

Cheese

salt and black pepper

Cook the rasher in the grill and chop everything else. Mix it all together and add a pinch of salt and loads of black pepper. Serve with pitta breads and eat warm.

And that's it. 

Do you have any good recipes that I need to try? Leave a link comment the comment section and I try it and give you props on the blog if I use it.

Linking up with the every inspirational Jen from A Daily Dose of Davis.

Thanks for stopping by!

Healthy Shepherds pie

I have always loved Shepherds pie but I never liked the greasy feeling it left in my mouth.

I also didn't the idea of all that frying of the mince. The fat in it used to kill the Hubs with his stomach.

So, I came up with a healthier and tastier{in my opinion} version.

What's my secret??

Well, it's not a big secret. All I do is boil my mince instead of frying it.

Here's what you'll need:

400g beef mince

handful of frozen peas

1 onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, grated

1 sweet potato, grated

beef stock cube

1 packet of Knorr Mealmaker shepherds pie

700g of mashed potatoes

Ketchup

Firstly, I don't buy mince. I don't like it. I don't like not knowing what is in it. So, I buy chuck/neck/rib steak and mince it in my food processor at home.

Boil your mince with a stock cube in the water.

When the meat is nearly cooked, add your frozen peas.

Drain off the water.

Add the onions and fry off in the pot. Don't add oil.

Add your carrots ans sweet potato and mix.

Follow you packet instructions and add the water required to the pot and add the powder mix.

Simmer for about 10 minutes and add the ketchup.

When it's ready, put it in an over proof dish and top with your mashed potato and cook until your mash is golden and crispy.

It turns out much more creamy and there is on oil or fat in it. 

It become a huge hit in our house and the Hubs doesn't complain of a tummy ache after eating it anymore.

If you try this recipe ,I would love to hear about it? Did you like it? Leave a comment and let me know.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fathers Day Ideas 2013

What do you get for the man that has everything?

I mean, he has an amazing wife and two fab kids but you can't let Fathers day go by without marking the occasion. 

Father's Day June 16th 2013

I found some really cute and cheap ideas for gifts and things to do on Fathers day.

I love taking photos. And I love giving photos to people that they can treasure for the rest of their lives. Something that they can look at and remember the moment they got it.

I may be trying to recreate this little gem before Sunday.

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Or something like this. Not sure if could get my little guy to sit still to get this done.

Or how about this cute room service card. I know a certain little girl who would love to play chef and make her Dad whatever he wants.

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If the man in you life has a sweet tooth and you love to bake then this next idea is right up your street.

How cute are these cupcakes?

Or wrap his favourite chocolate bar in this cute wrapper and I sure any Dad would be pleased.

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What about a cute questionnaire? I can only imagine the answer my little wilds would give. This may also be happening in our house.

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My Dad, the wilds Gran-dad loves his neck ties. He's always wearing them. So this next idea is what I'm going to try do for him. I'm going to hit up the charity shop and see if I can find a tie to recreate. I pretty sure he wear it but would go insane if we spent too much on the gift.

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So if your looking for something special for that special guy in your life then I hope these have helped.

But most of all, enjoy the day with the person that helped you become a parent.

10 on Tuesday : A bit of a catch-up

I kind of slacked off on the blog last week. But if I'm being honest. I don't care. The sun was shining and I was out in it every day. I barely look at a computer all week and I only popped in now and then to the social media world. But the sun is gone and I'm back.

Speaking of the sun. We got up to so much. Took a unplanned trip back to the beach last Tuesday. It was P man's first time at the beach and he loved it. I really hope the sun comes back again so we can go back.

We had a birthday party at Jasmin's friends house. Pirate Jack was he entertainer. He was amazing. Face painting, Balloon animals, Dancing, Games and Tattoos. He really too the hard work out of the party. I might just have to look into getting an entertainer for the next big birthday in our house.

Hello Kitty!

We pulled out the pool the weekend and let the kids play in it. And when I say pool, I mean tiny pick blow up pool. But it could have been a bucket of water and these two would have been happy. Please come back  Mr Sun.

If your wondering what all that stuff in the background is, well let me tell you. My amazingly crafty Husband put up a new post and panel wall at my mothers house. She has the most amazing son-in-law, hands down. He also built a fab gate for her so the too wilds won't go wandering onto the road.

Jasmin had her first school sports day. She didn't win anything but said it didn't matter cos she had fun. So proud of this little one for know that having fun is more important. Next year were going to win the spud and spoon race. 

She also had her first school tour. This little poser got to go to Lee Strand milk factory and see how milk gets put into cartons. For some reason she was very excited about it and had a fantastic day. She got a mug, key ring and a activity book in a goodie bag too. No tears or anything. Slow down little girl. Your growing up too fast.

I started Jillian Micheals 30 day shred on Monday. It is tough. But I excited to see what changes and results I get from it. I want to be able to workout at home. I spend enough time away from home and driving to this and that. Working out is not another thing I'm going adding to that list. 

The garden is coming or well. the sun really helped it. The weeds and grass are doing very very well. Ha! I can't wait to have some spud and cabbage from here. There is nothing like new potatoes. I'm not sure the peas will make the kitchen but they taste so good out of the pod.

I finally got the P man's bedroom done. Thanks to moneysupermarket.com and their room for improvement challange i got it done. You can read all about it here.

Wow, We really got up to a lot over the past 2 weeks. I try not to be so MIA if the sun come back but I can't make any promises. Ha!

Thanks for stopping by.

Health and Fitness Friday

Fitness

Oh what a week of highs and lows.
The sun arrived here last weekend and I have not come inside since. But I haven't worked out as much as I would have liked. I'm not too bummed about it though. We may not have the sun for too long and I intend on enjoying every single minute with my kids outside.

I did get 2 short runs in this week. I ran 2 miles both times. My first run was ok, " miles in 23ish minutes. The second one, not so good. I don't know if it was the heat or me but it was tough. It could have been the hills too. I need to find some nice flat runs and get some mileage up.

I did my abs and arms workouts 4 days this week so I'm ok on that side of things.

Health

Health has been good. I've been eating good and I've been having smoothies and fruit between meals instead of cookies and bad snacks. I'm going to try some new smoothies this week and I'll post my favorites here next week.
My favourite this week is :
Strawberry
Blueberry
Banana

That's is this week.
I'm linking up with Jen as usual.