September Salads: Weekend Update

Day 24, 25 & 26: SICK SICK SICK!!!
Day 27: Romaine, pears, craisins, candied almonds, gorgonzola & poppy seed dressing.
Day 28: Romaine, tomato, red bell pepper, cucumber, avocado, croutons & homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Oh I was sick this weekend. So so sick. So I didn't really feel like eating anything at all let alone salads. Oh well! I'll make up those days the first few days of October. I jumped right back into things with a delicious salad yesterday. I was actually trying out this recipe that I found on Pinterest. I was so excited to try that dressing recipe because I had a lot of luck with the last dressing I had made. It was just not for me at all. Oh well you win some you loose some. It was still a great salad with the poppyseed dressing on it. Even Denny loved it.

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September Salads: Week in Review

There are a few reasons I haven't posted at all this week. The number on reason though is I'm a little bored with salads. And although I've been really busy I feel like there hasn't been anything else going on that is particularly blog worthy.

The second reason is I'm documenting everything I eat in an iPhone app called My Fitness Pal. Which has been amazing! However documenting there and here just sounded too repetitive for me. So I thought I would do a weekly wrap up instead. So here I go.

Day 17: Half Cosi Signature Salad with light dressing and half the cheese.

Day 18: *Sigh* FAIL.

Day 19: Subway Turkey Breast Salad with Sweet Onion Sauce.

Day 20: Green leaf lettuce, strawberries, sugared almonds, feta cheese & poppy seed dressing AND Denny's Chinese chicken salad for dinner. 

Day 21: Green leaf lettuce, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, balsamic vinaigrette.

Day 22: Green leaf lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, corn, croutons & poppy seed dressing.

Day 23: Green leaf lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, corn, croutons, shredded jalapeno cheddar cheese & balsamic vinaigrette.

As you can see I missed a day last Sunday. Instead of getting bent out of shape and down on myself for not accomplishing my goal I made up for it on Tuesday with TWO salads! Really I was planning a great salad for Sunday night but I had a latter lunch that was rather big. So come time for dinner I wasn't that hungry. I had some yogurt & fruit instead (should I count that as a fruit salad?). The last few days haven't been all that creative but it still works. 

Also you may have noticed I took Friday's post about the fried egg salad down. I had a few people tell me that the picture sort of resembled a certain female reproductive organ. The more I looked at it the more I saw it. So down it came. I'm only a tiny bit embarrassed. No biggie.

So there you have. My September Salads week in review. Next week is the last week!

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September Salad: Day 15

Day 15: romaine, celery, cucumber, avocado, red bell pepper, black beans, corn, honey mustard Vinaigrette.

Today's salad is very similar to yesterday's. At this point in the week I'm using up as much produce in my fridge as I can before it goes bad. I'm a much better shopper when it comes to produce now. And eater for that matter. I know what will last and what doesn't. The things that don't last long make it into salads at the beginning of the week. Such as Strawberries. Now I'm working on the things that have been in there a while longer. Like the celery. This may seem obvious to some but for me the non-veggie eater I've had to learn this. Another thing I've learned is that I need to find other ways to add in calories. I'll do another post all about that tomorrow though.

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September Salad: Day 14

Day 14: Romaine, cherry tomatoes, avocado, corn, black beans with homemade honey mustard vinaigrette.

I'm two weeks into my goal! Feels pretty good! There are a couple things I've learned in the past two weeks. Buying bagged salad mixes is a rip off. They only last for maybe two days. A head of Romaine will last several days and costs less. Same goes for salad dressing. It's easy to make & so tasty. However nothing compares to Brianna's Poppy Seed Dressing. I will always have a bottle of that one hand. Also I love avocado with my whole heart but man does it have a lot of calories. Good thing I need the extra calories right now right? It's been a pretty tasty two weeks that's for sure.

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September Salad: Day 13

Day 13: romaine, strawberries, avocado, gorgonzola & Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Mmmmm I love salads with strawberries. I'm taking advantage of them being so cheap right now. Pretty soon they won't be. I really try hard to eat in season.

I realize my pictures are really bad. And it's purely out of laziness. Although I love Instagram it doesn't do my salads justice. However I just don't have the time at lunch to break out the camera and set up a nice shot. So I snap a picture with my iPhone and call it good. We'll just have to deal with it.

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September Salads: Days 10, 11 & 12

Day 10: Half Wendy's Apple Pecan Chicken Salad (soooo good).

Day 11: Mediterranean Salad with arugala, turkey, olives & hummus.

Day 12: What I call the ultra basic. Romaine, tomato, celery, cucumber with poppy seed dressing.

Today's salad may seem totally boring but it taught me a lesson. A salad doesn't need a lot of fancy toppings to be tasty, delicious & filling. My Mother served a similar salad every single night at dinner growing up. It's basic. It's great. No need to fuss every day.

When I started out the month I was sure these posts would be skipped over and ignored. It was just a way for me to be accountable for a goal. I'm really surprised by how many people have come and talked to me about "my salads". I'm surprised that a couple people have even joined me. I'm so grateful for the encouragement. Under normal circumstances I would have given up by now. Blogging about this has really kept me on track. It's kinda awesome.

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September Salad: Day 8 & 9

Days 8 & 9: Chinese Chicken Salad Ala Denny Leclerc
Or a more appropriate title would be "The Salad I've Been Waiting Three Years For". Yes three years. Many of you may know my husband works for the family business. An asian stir fry restaurant called Fire Wok. It's great! I love it! I think the food is pretty yummy, but I am pretty biased. The menu is wide and varies a lot. I'll be honest though one area I always thought was lacking was the salads. They offer two and I don't really like either of them. Hate to say it but it's true. One of the salads is made up of ice berg lettuce, spicy dressing and friend chicken. It has no nutritional value what so ever. So bad for you. It's pretty bad when you can get a better asian chicken salad at McDonald's. So I've been pestering him for years about adding another option to the menu. Finally the man delivered. This salad was just what I was hoping for. It's so good I ate it two days in a row. I won't tell you what's in it. I can't give away the recipe. It's not on the menu yet. Hopefully soon. If you want you could go to Fire Wok's Facebook Page, like them, and then leave a comment requesting they add this salad to the menu. I need your help friends! Let's make it happen!

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Lost

I know this is a weird picture. Last week I walked into the kitchen and this is how I found Jessie. It just made me laugh and I had to take a picture. 

You know how bad things always happen in three's. Well the same goes for getting lost or losing things (I guess that qualifies for bad things huh?) Example...

1. Miss. S lost her Jessie Girl. Yes the one hanging upside down by her boots in the above photo. I think she was left behind at the Faust St. Bridge in New Braunfels. If she was then she is pretty lucky to get lost in such a lovely place. Miss. S was so very sad.

2. This morning I couldn't find my bathing suit and my sunglasses. Luckily the bathing suit was found. However my beloved sunglasses are officially lost. I think that means a new pair is on the horizon.

3. Today on my way to a play date at the park I got seriously lost. I mean for like an hour. It was terrible. Eventually I found my way but it was touch and go for a while there.

I've decided that feeling lost is one of the worst feelings in the world. I'm not the type of person that gets lost or looses things very often. So when it happens to me I kinda panic and get all flustered. I think I need to recuperate with a nap. Yes a nap seems appropriate. Both kids are sleeping and this Momma needs it.

September Salad: Day 7

Day 7 was mixed greens, mandarin oranges, craisins, feta cheese and poppy seed dressing. Pretty delicious. I could live off poppy seed dressing. I found some great salad recipes yesterday that I can't wait to try. Just you wait!

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September Salad: Days 3, 4, 5 & 6

Day 3: Taco Cabana Fajita Chicken Salad.
Day 4: German Potato Salad
Day 5: Fruit Salad & Broccoli Salad

Ok the last two were a bit of a stretch as I had other Labor Day BBQ items along side them. But technically they are salads & technically I did eat them. So what if there was brisket along side of it. It was Labor Day weekend and I do live in Texas after all. So I'm counting it as good.

Day 6: Apple celery salad with homemade Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. Recipe found here.

Today I'm back on track. My lunch salad was fantastic. Just enough sour, sweet & spicy for my liking. Plus gorgonzola and apples are one of my favorite combos. Try it you'll like it. Today I'm going to search Pinterest for new salad ideas. Hopefully I'll find some good ones.


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Happy Labor Day

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend! We enjoyed a drop in temperatures today. A Labor Day Miracle if you ask me! It was a great day!

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September Salad: Day 2

Still using ingredients from my fridge today's salad consisted of mixed greens, strawberries, feta, candied almonds and Newman's Own Light Raspberry Walnut dressing. Now before you say "That salad isn't healthy you put candied almonds on it!" stop yourself. I used light dressing & low fat cheese. The amount of sugar used to candy the almonds isn't going to make that big of a difference in the long run. I'm getting so many other nutrients such as fiber, vitamin c, calcium, Ect. I'm not too worried about the small amount of candied nuts on this salad (it looks like there's a lot more than there actually are). Plus they taste so so so good.

If you want to play along with me please do! The only rule is to eat a salad everyday for breakfast or lunch for all of September. I don't even care if the salad comes from Wendy's. If you do decide to do it let me know. And if you have any great salad suggestions please pass them along!

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Fashion Night

Image Found in instyle.com

This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to give a Back to School Fashion activity for the Young Woman (12-18 years old) of our church. It was so much fun for me to plan and present this activity. I may not look like a girl that knows a lot about fashion as I generally prefer jeans and a t-shirt. However I am kind of obsessed. I think I've mentioned here before that I used to work at a modeling agency in Los Angeles called Rage Models and Talent. Through that agency I was able to form working relationships with several designers and their teams. It was a time in my life that I absolutely loved. Through that job I learned a thing or two about the fashion industry and it was so much fun to pass along some of that wisdom to these young girls.

Image Found on mymodernmet.com

Since it was a church activity we of coarse focused our attention on modesty. We wanted to approach modesty in a different way. By combining the spiritual aspect of why we should dress modestly and the fun fashion side of it. A lot of people don't put modesty and fashion together. But for me I think they most certainly should. Girls these days have such pressure to follow the crowd and unfortunately middle school and high school girls think that dressing immodestly is what will get them noticed. Unfortunately it will get them noticed but for all the wrong reasons. So one of my goals was to show them real life examples of fashionable modern woman. I found tons and tons of photos of modest fashion on runways, in magazines, on blogs, and on the street to show them. Truly modesty is every where and modesty is one thing that will stand the test of time.

Image Found on Sunday Crossbow

This activity was a great reminder to me. Sometimes I feel a little silly or embarrassed when doing fashion posts on this blog. I mean it's not a fashion blog (I would consider this a lifestyle blog). I might feel a little out of my league. But I was reminded that I love it. I was given an opportunity 6 years ago to learn and be immersed in a fascinating and unique industry. I did learn a lot from working at Rage. So why not share what I know and love. I was also reminded that our youth today should be admired. They are incredible and inspiring. In a world full of pressure from peers, the media and so much more they are constantly impressing me with their strength. We should all look up to the youth of today as examples in our lives. All in all Wednesday night was a great night for me. I hope that some day I'll get to have another experience like it. And you can look forward to many more fashion posts here on this blog.

Image found via Pinterest

September Salad: Day 1

Last week I had some medical testing done. Everything is fine and all the results came back good but it got me thinking about my overall health and well being. The past couple years I haven't been the healthiest of girls. Before I got pregnant with Mr. Z I was getting sick at least once a month for several months in a row. With the flu or a cold. Just various things. I ended up getting an immune booster type shot from my doctor and I was better for a while. Then I got pregnant. And I had a really difficult pregnancy. I was sick or in pain pretty much the whole nine months. Since having him I've had several different things going on. This is all on top of a GI Track disorder I have been struggling with my whole life. Anyway the point is I have not been in tip top shape and it is frustrating. Honestly I can't really say I've been taking care of myself all that well though. My diet is a little crazy. I haven't really been exercising. I stay up way later than I should. So after last week I'm making a commitment to myself (and to my family) to take better care of myself. Starting with my diet. I've been really putting forth a lot of effort to make better choices. One big problem is I'm not getting in enough fruits and veggies. So I decided that for the entire month of September I'm eating a salad everyday for lunch or dinner. So I'll be back to posting everyday. I feel like the best way to be accountable is to document it publicly. Everyday I will be posting my salad of choice. I think this is the easiest way for me to add in more veggies.

Today's salad pretty much consisted of everything in my fridge green leaf & lolla rossa salad mix, avocado, green bell pepper, corn, black beans, carrots and topped off with hatch chili salsa in lieu of dressing. It was hearty and delicious!

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Instagram Love

That's right. I have a love of Instagram. There are a lot of reasons why I love it. The main reason is I'm not really great at taking pictures. Especially with my phone. Instagram takes my crappy iPhone pictures and makes them decent. I'm sooooo excited about Printstagram. They have really great ways to print all those wonderful little Instagram photos for you to enjoy. I've been pretty much daydreaming about this all morning. How cool would it be to have an Instagram Poster hanging in your house. Or a tiny little book filled with your favorite shots. There are even tiny little stickers. LOVE IT!!! I can't wait to try it out and when I do I'll make sure to let you guys know all about it! Instagram is a free iPhone app and it is well worth having it on your phone!