Yummy Recipes and tid bits

Yummy Banana-Oat Bars
Serves: 8
Time to prepare: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
2 cups quick oats (not instant)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (optional)
1 tablespoon date sugar (optional)
How to prepare:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix ingredients together in a large bowl.
Press dough in a 9"X 9" baking pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Cool on wire rack. When cool, slice into squares or bars and serve.


We started eating more Quinoa in our household- look it up on Wikipedia.  It's amazing stuff!  But here is a site that my sister-n-law so graciously found with wonderful dishes to prepare with Quinoa.
http://www.tastespotting.com/features/tag/30-days-of-quinoa

One of the simplest things I did with quinoa was boil it, then mix steamed broccoli into it and add a packet of tuna and add some fresh herbs/spices and squeeze some lemon juice on it and VIOLA! Instant yummy food.

Another one of my favorite meals is baked Sweet Potato Fries and baked fish- any fish!  We added some steamed veggies too to make the plate pretty. :)  Its just so yummy.

Last night was my best time yet for my walk/jog.  3.1 miles in 48 minutes.  My goal was to do 3.1 miles in 45 minutes by the end of May.  I have 1 week exactly from today to shave off 3 minutes.....scary!  But I know I can do it. :)  Right now I'm mostly power walking with interval jogging.  So I just have to think about adding more jogging time. Baby steps....

As time goes on, it seems to get easier to choose good choices over bad food choices.  I have this feeling that if I give in once to junk food, that I will continue to say "Its OK, just this one time."  Instead, if I do want junk food, I tell myself that when its snack time, I'll eat.  Or I ask myself, "Am I really hungry or is this just a craving that will pass?"  Drink some water, get my mind off of it by doing something else and then a few minutes later I find that I wasn't hungry.  It was just my emotions and feelings "thinking" that I wanted food.  It almost feels silly to try to teach myself these things now...I mean, I'm adult and I should make good choices. 

I plan to weigh myself again this Saturday. It was 2 weeks ago that I had lost a total 14.2 pounds.  I don't think I've lost that much but I think I'm on track to have lost another 4 pounds which is a healthy weight loss in 2 weeks.

I keep telling myself that I need to journal about what my sister-n-law Tina emailed me about.  But I just haven't had the emotional strength to write about it.  I feel like I'm still chewing on it.  It was so good and I know she was spot on.  So I'm excited to get time to really sit down and write it out and see where my emotions and Spirit take me on it.  So Tina, hold me accountable and make sure I write about what we talked about in your email.  I know it will bless not only me, but other women too.  Because that is just how cool God is. :)