Yummy Chili

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Recipe you MUST try: Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili from SkinnyTaste

Holy Moly, was it tasty (and there’s a bit left, so I get some more today!) I actually made half of what the recipe calls for since the two of us are pretty sucky at using up all the leftovers. I topped mine with a dallop of greek yogurt and a pinch of cheese.

Yesterday’s workout felt GOOD. I did the strengh “ladders” from this phase of Best Body Bootcamp at home, then went to the gym to bust out a 30 minute interval run and 20 minutes on the spin bike. Here’s what my run looked like:

Hey, so I am going to be boring and do another survey. Mostly because the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet and I am brain dead. Yay!

1. Last thing you ate:

Multigrain Cheerios (my weekday breakfast of choice)

2. Last beverage you drank:

Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

3. Last workout:

See above

4. Last thing you pinned:

Lace wrapped mason jars

(I totally forgot about pinning this, by the way, but I ironically took a bunch of used glass candle jars- put them in the freezer for a couple hours, popped out the leftover wax, and now they’re ready to get some similar decorating!)

5. Last text message you sent:

Well, it’s not the last one, but I thought this rant I sent Tyler yesterday was pretty funny

6. Last blog you visited:

Meh, I sort of skimmed over a ton and Marked as Read when I woke up- haven’t clicked back over yet to check more out. Actually, I lied. I clicked on Its Linz post on pumpkin muffins (through twitter)

7. Last tweet you sent:

8. Last place you visited:

Yesterday I went to Safeway, Pet Planet, and the Y. Super exciting stuff.

9. Last time you did ab work:

Sunday night. I did side crunches on the bender ball.

10. Last show you watched:

We have been recording this season of Revenge because I was obsessed with it. But I watched the first episode of this season this morning, and I am so over it.

(Source)

11. Last thing you baked:

Pumpkin Bread!

12. Last thing you Instagrammed:

Some pre-workout powder I got in one of my Bulu Boxes

13. Last Item on your to-do list today:

Well, ummmmm…..

And I leave you with my thoughts about school right now:

Ok, your turn- answer one or some or all of these!

Recipes, Purchases, and a Workout

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey, I’m back. I told you I would be, so it shouldn’t be such a huge surprise.

1. So these:

Holy hell are they sweet or what. They’re so sweet, I gotta say it again: holy hell. But if you’d like the recipe, you can find it here.

2. Apple Leather

Here’s what I did: 6 apples peeled and halved. Put into boiling water for a few minutes to get them nice and tender. Drain and throw them in the blender with just under 1/4 c water and cinnamon to taste. Then spread out on a cookie pan lined with saran wrap (sprayed with cooking oil helps). Then put oven on the lowest setting (mine was 170 degrees) and let it sit in the oven overnight (8-10 hours. Check it now and then to make sure it doesn’t crisp up, you want it to be a bit pliable).

There ya go!

3. I went to Lululemon (because Tyler TOLD me to) and I got 2 precious gems to add to my collection. This is totally going to help me with that issue I mentioned yesterday.

It’s the Virtue Energy Pant in dense purple and the Run: Swiftly Tech long sleeve

4. Then I got carried away and found an amazeballs steal on some more winter clothes. I got two pairs of cords and 2 sweaters and they were each $20! Not bad, Jen. Not bad.

5. Yesterday’s workout.

It was somewhat adjusted because I only had one girl attend the class, but here’s the gist: (some of the moves were taken from Best Body Bootcamp. Green= strength; Blue= cardio)

5 minute warmup

Elevated push press (using the step) 1 min each side
Up/down plank- 1 min

Run laps around the studio for 3 minutes
15 seconds jacks/15 seconds mountain climbers x3

Lunge stance with row- 1 min/Opposite leg forward lunge stance with reverse fly- 1 min
Tricep dips- 30 seconds at the 4-count and 30 seconds at single count
Repeat lunge moves and tricep dips

Run laps opposite directions for 3 minutes
1 min torso twist hops

1 minute wall sit with bicep curls
1 minute weighted laying hip abduction/1 minute weighted hip adduction
1 minute wall sit with overhead press

30 seconds jump rope/30 seconds quick feet x3

15 squats with front raise
15 chest flys
30 second decline plank
15 single leg tricep kickback Left/15 right
10 plank with single arm row Right/10 left
8 surrender squat right/8 left

BURPEES

we did 5 burpess with a 15 second rest 10x through

ABS

Crunch progressions: 10 reg crunches, 10 with legs at tabletop position, 10 with legs straight in the air, 10 with scissor legs left, 10 scissor legs right, 10 tabletop, 10 regular

Tell me something random. How about: what’s the last thing you bought online? Where’s the last place you went out to eat? Favorite TV show this fall? Favorite cold-weather meal to make?

October Foodie Pen Pal Reveal Day!

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Merry Christmas, y’all (gotta keep it interesting, you know, separate myself from all the other bloggers telling you it’s Halloween or some silly thing like that).

Welp, not only is it “Christmas” but it’s also FOODIE PEN PAL REVEAL DAY! (cue squeals of excitement)

Here’s the 4-1-1 in case you want to sign up yourself:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

– Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

CLICK HERE to sign up!!!

***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!

This month, I was paired up with Nicole who sent me an awesome box.

It seriously is like Christmas when I get packages in the mail, and I was super excited, per usche (usual) for this one.

A cool Halloween card!

Halloween Candy

Some seriously awesome DavidsTea

And OMYGOSH some homemade fruit leather!!! (apple and apple-pear). She even included the recipe in her card. Not gonna lie, I ate ALL OF IT within 48 hours, and I actually just bought a bunch of apples yesterday to make a batch tonight! Can’t wait (I hope it turns out half as good as the stuff Nicole sent!!) A HUGE thanks to Nicole for her thoughtfulness in my fpp box this month.

OH.

AND.

I sent a a package to Ashlee this month, and she wanted to write a little blurb about her goodies, so read on…

Hey all! I’m Ashlee and I’m from Ontario!

It’s my third time participating in The Lean Green Bean’s Foodie Penpal exchange and this month I was lucky enough to receive my box from Jen. I started following Jen’s blog the minute we became friends on Twitter and let me just say…her personality shines through her posts. Because of that, I was especially excited this time around to see my box full of surprises!

As soon as I started unpacking my goodies, I realized I had tried none of what Jen sent me – BONUS. It’s awesome to get things you like, but it’s even awesomer to get things you’ve never tried. The maple crunch – gone. The almond spice bar – gone. I tried the marshmellows in hot chocolate…bad decision…so I ate the rest solo. I’m still working on (hoarding) the gummies…sorry roomies. They’re a nice treat after a long day at the office. The only thing I shared was the tea. It was an exceptionally rainy/chilly weekend, so my mom, stepdad, and I curled up on the couch and drank it all. Yum!Thanks so much, Jen, for all of the wonderful goodies! Cheers to another successful month!

*******

Anyone have any good food finds lately?

The Funk Phenomena

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

1. I forgot to mention yesterday about this sort of cool thing. Tyler ate McDonalds. No, that is not the cool thing, but I’m getting to that part. You see, when I’m not in the house around dinner time, Tyler cheats on me. I came home from teaching at the Y last week and I asked if he wanted me to make him a smoothie. He said no, he wasn’t hungry. I asked him if he had any dinner and he said he snuck to McDonalds when I left. My jaw dropped and my head started to shake, but he had what he thought was a legitimate excuse: the Monopoly game was back. AND he won. I asked if he won a McMuffin, which is basically not winning, and he said no, he won 2 free 5×7 prints from snapfish.ca.

“Ok” I thought to myself, “I can use this!”

So yesterday, I got online (shocker) and ordered two prints. And shipping was free.

2. Naturally, I followed up this venture with a trip to Michael’s for some craft frame project, but I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. I had a coupon, too! Wahhh.

3. I made these puppies to accommodate dinner last night (which was salad topped with spicy pulled chicken)

Cornbread Jalapeno Poppers

Here’s what you’ll need:

6 jalapenos
cornbread mix (I used the entire box, and baked the rest as muffins to freeze for later)
1 cup corn
1.5 cups shredded cheddar
GLOVES

Here’s what you do:

Put on gloves and cut each jalapeno in half (lengthwise). Remove veins and seeds.
Mix the cornbread according to box directions (ugh I always make mine from scratch, or use Jiffy mix, but I couldn’t find Jiffy anywhere here! Another sad face for Canada), mix in the corn and one cup of cheese.
Scoop the mixture and place in each jalapeno. Top with remaining cheese
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

(Tyler didn’t like them. I’m thinking he was secretly hoping they were full of cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. That’s for next time!)

4. I had a really sweaty at-home workout last night.

(The stability ball followed me into the bathroom, apparently)

I started with about 40 minutes of kickboxing, and rounded out with a 20 minute full body strength session. I started laughing at the beginning of my kickboxing workout, because the first song was The Funk Phenomena (I linked to the YouTube ‘video’ so you can listen to it if you have no idea what I am talking about). I went through the song 2x because I was laughing so hard.

“Jen, why were you laughing?”

“Because he sounds like he’s saying Tha Fu Fa Na Ma Na instead of The Funk Phenomena!” (Leave it to me to make everything childish.) I was also super hyper, so I was adding some crazy hip action to this routine.

5. When I went back home in August, I dedicated a full day to take care of formally important stuff. I had to contact every insurance company I used for car insurance (to provide Tyler’s insurance company with proof that I have been driving x-number of years with 0 claims- so that my payment would be reduced) I had a lot of insurance companies, because I was always reviewing to see who could provide me with the cheapest rate. Oh, and the coverage I had under my parents when I was in college- that company doesn’t even exist anymore, so that was fun trying to track down.

I also had to deal with all the health insurance bills that SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN A PROBLEM. You see, my health coverage from my employer in the states covered one annual physical and one annual ‘lady exam’ (cough cough, yaknowwhatimsayin, cough cough). So, I went for my lady exam in September 2011 and was billed $289. UM THAT’S NOT ACCEPTABLE. So I went to my HR department to bitch about it, and they just told me to call the doctor’s office, who then told me to call the billing office, who then told me to contact my health insurance company…blah blah blah. This went on for almost a year. Finally, I was contacted by someone in HR who said they screwed up and incorrectly entered my social security number. And that’s why I kept getting billed.

I also went in for a routine check up at my doctor and was billed $110. For what? She basically took my blood pressure and asked if I ‘felt safe at home.’ Dumb questions that doctors ask these days.

Long story short, I spent 6 hours on the phone when I was home in August, trying to straighten everything out. I had people send me receipts and confirmation that everything was settled.

And then this weekend, my dad messages me saying I had another bill from them in the mail.

NO, AMERICA. YOU ARE SO SUCKY AT HEALTH INSURANCE.

YAY, CANADA. YOU GIVE ME MEDS FOR FREE AND ARE NICE TO ME.

6. Since I love to tell funny stories, I’ve got another one for you today. You see, I used to be fat.

(Source)

Ok, well not ‘fat’ but I ate a lot of calzones and chocolate covered raisins and drank a LOT of beer in college. And I broke my foot junior year which didn’t help, either. My highest weight was just a hair under 200 pounds. I kid you not. So to all you boys out there I made out with in college- you’re welcome. You must have been drinking a lot of beer then, too.

I went through phases of over-exercising, and no exercising, and weight watchers, etc. It wasn’t until after I graduated and moved into my own place did I realize the importance of what I was eating. And it wasn’t until I got certified in group fitness did I get the importance of my fitness.

And now, I am more than 50 pounds lighter than I was in college. Hooray! (And I still drink beer and eat Nutella, imagine that!)

7. My dog is crazy.

Tell me something random in the comments!

(Don’t forget to like my facebook page, follow me on instragram and twitter @nutcaseinpoint)

Weekend Recap

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Ah, the Sunday blues. The worst feeling. Except for probably childbirth, but I haven’t done that yet.

Cute pictures of my dog help a little bit.

She has entirely too many toys. Tyler brought her home a big bright pink one that’s name Silly, but I haven’t snapped a pic of it yet. (He brought me Moroccan Oil! What a gem of a guy #lovehim. And yes, I just used a hashtag)

Oh hey, and look what I Tyler installed (I helped)

Light! Glorious, bright, light! You have no idea how excited we were to get this puppy up. The hallway is just too dang dark, and we are still pretty painted-out from the living room/dining room/bathroom, that we haven’t tackled a brighter color for this space.

Sidenote: I did NOT know Rock of Ages was adapted from a musical. I was not prepared to watch over 2 hours of singing. oof

Sidenote#2: Never have a valued the performance of a humidifier more than now. Hello, boogerless sleeps!

Here’s a funny story: We took Layla to our favorite park yesterday. It’s completely fenced in, there are other dogs she can play with, and it’s close to the river so she can take a swim (and by that, I mean lay in the water).

Anyways, we get to the park and there is a tent set up. It was a little thing promoted by the city(?) to educate people on how to properly clean up after their pets. Ummm, what? I’m pretty sure it goes like this:

Have bag.
Dog poops.
Put hand in bag and pick up poop.
Flip the bag inside out, tie a knot, and throw bag away.

Guess people don’t know about that little trick.

I also guess that wasn’t really a funny story, but I thought it needed to be told.

On an unrelated note, I had a really great workout after the walk. I completed 40 minutes of crazy intense spinning and then since I was pressed for time, I did a quick set of bulgarian split squats, elevated squats, hamstring extensions, single-legged dead lifts, and clean and jerks. This may sound weird, but when I have a set of muscles that feel tight, I actually like working some strength on them because it feels like stretching. Silly, yes, but it works for me. Now my hammies feel fantastical.

(Insert brief pause here, while I go downstairs to change the laundry)

Oh hey, date night!

I clean up pretty decent. I’ll admit, I don’t get myself ‘done up’ too much these days, but DAMN it feels good ~~to be a gangsta.~~

He looks pretty slick himself.

Tyler got a Groupon for Koiji Restolounge. Poor guy has had a mean craving for sushi, but hasn’t had it in forever since I’m not a seafood person. And then, I caved and told him I’d give it a go. The restaurant was small, but it was super nice, and the waitstaff was really friendly. Helped take the edge off, for sure.

Not gonna lie, I was nervous.

We ordered an avocado roll, 2 California rolls (avocado and snow crab), a spicy tuna roll, Alberta (beef, arugula and cucumber), and Tuscany (cream cheese, sun-dried tomato and something else).

a.) I suck at using chopsticks.

b.) Around the 6th piece, I had a nasty gag reflex and needed to gulp my wine and take a breather.

c.) I love wasabi.

I’m not in love with sushi now, but I can definitely tolerate it. This made Tyler a very happy man. (Is it weird to still taste seaweed the next day? Because I do)

Fast forward through the night, and here we are. Sunday football, pumpkin pancakes, homework (gag reflex at its finest), and watching a man jump from space.