life on the ranch

Good afternoon! I keep thinking that today is Monday, come to find out it's actually Tuesday, and I get SUPER excited because that means only 3 1/2 more days until the weekend! Can you tell what I'm living for these days?!
If you've been reading, then you remember that the boyfriend and I packed up and hauled our butts to Brownwood, Texas to spend the weekend with his family. We had high hopes of getting away, kicking our feet up, and relaxing the weekend away. Well, that's just what we got- sort of.

We departed from Austin on Saturday afternoon, foot to the metal and the music blasting. I absolutely love going on trips with Raymond for the sole fact that I get to throw my feet up on the dash board to bask in the sun and sing to the blaring music as loud as I can, just to serenade annoy him. How could you not just love me???

The drive is only about 2+ hours, but we always make sure that we leave on an empty stomach, just so that we can stop in Lampasas at Storm's Burgers. The actual restaurant is similar to a Sonic, with the curb side ordering layout, just a wee-bit butt load older and slightly falling apart. You know, no biggie. You know what they say-- "good things come in small ugly packages!" A lot of people like to believe that Storm's is highly overrated, but I beg to differ. While I don't think that they are the best burger that I'll ever eat, they definitely are at the top of the list. Besides, I don't think the Food Network would feature somewhere that totally sucked, now would they? Take that haters.

Our first stop after getting into town, was to pick up Raymond's son... Raymond III! I absolutely love spending time with these two together. To see how happy they are around each other is awesome. To watch my man smile from ear to ear for 2 days straight just because his boy is asleep in the next room gives me the best feeling in the world. Aint it just the shweetest!?

Another 10 minute drive and we arrived at the El Rancho!... to an empty house. We were expecting to be greeted by his parents, the sisters, nephews, etc. But nope, nothing... no one. While waiting for everyone's arrival, we unloaded our things from the truck and the boys decided to start playin' around. A short while later everyone arrived home, and the fun began!

Knife Throwing

Sweet Tea Drinkin'

Rabbit Hunting

Cheesin'

With a full house of boys ranging from ages 2-15, the thoughts of relaxation were becoming more and more sparse! Looked like we were in for a looooong noisy few days!

The rest of the weekend was spent with an outing to the mall (which is the size of a Wal Mart) to see Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D. This was my first time to see a 3D movie, and it definitely took some getting used to. For some reason, those glasses were rather weird at first. After a good 15 minutes I felt like I was finally adjusted enough to where I could kick back and enjoy. I'm not sure if my expectations for a 3D movie were set too high, but I can only remember a good 2 or 3 times when I really felt like I was there in the movie. Maybe it's because it was a cartoon? Or maybe that's just how 3D movies are. I guess I'll just have to go watch more to find out! As for the actual movie itself, it was fantastic! We were a big fan of the first Kung Fu Panda, so we had high hopes for the second, and it sure did deliver. It was cute, touching, and funny, and I definitely would recommend it! Also while at the mall, we did a tiny bit of shopping and purchased some new running shorts. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I got 2 pair of Adidas tempo shorts for $30. Couldn't pass that deal up. I also almost purchased (twice) a new pair of running shoes but decided to wait and browse a bit more here in town. I have a feeling that purchase will be happening soon, and I can't wait!

After the mall we headed over to wally world where we bought a small pool for the little ones to play in since it was about 103 degrees outside and the wind was blowing so insanely strong it felt like we were standing in front of a burning building. You know it's hot when you stand outside for .2 seconds and your back is drenched in sweat. Attractive, I know.

Playing Life Guard

The food we eat on the ranch never ceases to amaze me. I always end up trying something I've never had, and never even knew people ate. I wont lie, when I discovered what we would be eating for dinner the first night, I got a little bit nervous. On the menu? Mollejas (moy-e-has). Other wise known as cow pancreas. GET OUT OF TOWN! I seriously cringed just a little bit at the thought, and decided that some chicken better be cooked for backup. Now, I've tried menudo (soup made with cow stomach), and lengua tacos (cow tongue) and have not been a fan of either. But, I am frightened pleased to say that the mollejas were rather tasty in that it tasted just like fried meat. A few pieces were consumed and then I moved on to the chicken.

Frying Mollejas

Another not-so-tasty treat consumed this weekend? Rabbit. I watched Raymond shoot, kill, skin, wash, and cook a rabbit in 10 minutes. Not only was I sad, but rather disgusted. I tried to muster up the courage to take a picture of the boys with their catch, but upon doing so I almost died at the sight of the eyeballs dangling from the head. Seriously, worst thing ever. Not only was I not too thrilled about tasting it, when I did take a tiny bite, it was awful. (I pretended to enjoy it for Raymond's sake.) It clearly was fresh, and tasted much too gamy for my liking. Not a fan of the bunny. RIP Bugs.

The boys with their catch

I quickly got over my bunny depression and we spent the rest of the weekend listening to stories and sippin' on cold beers. I had a fantastic time and was really upset to have to return to reality. I could live the rest of my life out on a ranch under the stars (coughraymondcough)! But, we're back and it's time to move on with the usual routine and the usual foods. I must admit, I am a bit excited to eat vegetables again!
Off I go to eat some green stuff!

im not a bitch

Hello and happy Saturday! I hope your weekends have started off superbly!

Aint I puuurddy??

Sorry for the scary, picture. I'm in the process of curling my hurr as I type up this post. I thought I'd squeeze in a quick and breezy post before I head out of town for the weekend. As much as I love all of you, I have a feeling relaxing on a ranch gazing up at the stars > blogging. Please forgive me, k?

I really wanted to talk about something that happened last night while I was waiting tables. This has really bothered me more than I think it should, and I could use some advice from you guys.

Everything is going normal, and all of a sudden a huge crowd of people were surrounding a table of guests. Apparently, a woman that was sitting at the table had fainted. She had eaten, and was only on her second beer, so clearly it wasn't due to mal-nutrition and she wasn't by any means drunk. She was there with her friends and her daughter (who was probably in her early 20s). She immediately came to, but an ambulance was called anyway, as it should have been. The ambulance came, took her vitals, spent about 20 minutes with her and then left. She and her friends stayed at the retaurant for about another 2 hours just chit catting.

Now, while all of this is happening, I'm making sure to just stay out of the way, and let the retaurant managers deal with it. I'm not going to go sticking my nose into business that isn't mine. Of course, if they needed anything, I'd get it for them in a heart beat. With that being said, I notice that throughout the rest of the duration that the women were sitting there, they started talking about how "they know the owners of the restuarant and they are definitely going to take care of it." My first thought is... what are the owners going to take care of? Why are they mad at our establishment for her sickness? Something that we have no control over. Whatever. I dropped it and moved on with my night. I continued working, but I couldn't help notice that the daughter kept staring at me. Every time I looked over at their table, she was turned around shooting me evil looks. Maybe I'm just crazy and she's looking at something else. Maybe. Hopefully. For about 30 minutes, this mean-mugging went on. Seeing that they had closed out their tabs when all of the comotion was taking place, I thought maybe they needed to order something else. Finally, I went over to the table and asked if everything was okay, and if they needed anything. The daughter immediately turned her head and wouldn't even speak to me. I asked again, and the rest of the women smiled and said that they were fine. Cool. So what's this girl's problem? Whatever it is, she's going to have to deal with it herself, because I'm not about to start anything with anybody and risk loosing my job. Done and done.

Eventually, the women decided to leave, and as they were walking out, a co-worker of mine told them to have a nice night, and I smiled polititely. As that happened, the daughter looked at me, turned to one of the other women, and then proceeded to say "BITCH! Did you see that girl laughing?" HOLD. THE. PHONE. Did she just call me a bitch?? Both my co-worker and I were in awe. Seriously, I felt my chin hit the floor. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, I've been called a bitch before. That's not what upsets me. What really gets to me, is the fact that this girl truely believed that I was standing there for 2 hours laughing at the face that her mom was sick. Really???? Never in my right mind would I EVER make fun of somebody for needed medical assistance. Coming from somebody that has called an ambulance twice in the last 3 months for their own father, I don't find anything remotely funny about it.

So why did she think that? What did she think she heard/saw me saying that would give her this idea? Did I make the wrong facial expression at her? I know I couldn't have said anything that would have put this idea in her head, because the only words I spoke to her was "are you doing okay?" Is this girl just a looney tune that has no idea what she's doing or does she genuinely think she heard me say something about the situation? Whatever it may be, a big part of me is super upset about it. And I wish that I could tell her all of this. But then I wonder if it would even matter. Would she even believe me? Or would she just think I'm lying to her? I guess I will never know, but I hope that everyone can take something from this. You don't know everything that other's are thinking. Even if you think you do... you don't.

With that being said, I'm off to spend the weekend with the people I love that know me and love me too! I hope you all have a great weekend!

breakfast morning noon & night

It's FRIDAYYY!! Yee-haw! I'm stoked!

I'm not gonna lie, this week was a rough one. The boys had me at my wit's end all week, and there were a few times where I thought I wasn't gonna make it! You ever have those days where you're just so frustrated you want to stop everything, lock yourself in a room and cry? Yeah, that was my Monday-Thursday. Don't get me wrong, I love my cutie little baby cousins, but everybody needs a break every now and again. Can I get an AMEN?!

Because I was put through the ringer this week, I have never been more excited to pack up, and head out of town with my babe for a few days. This Memorial Day weekend we will be heading to his parents ranch about 2 1/2 hours North-West of Austin. I'm sure the weekend will be filled with delicious authentic homemade food (his mom makes the BEST tortillas), gun-shootin', drinkin' around the fire and looking up at all of the stars. The difference in the air between here and there is amazing. Have you ever compared the night sky between the city and the country? It's baffling at how many more stars are visible in the country, and it really puts pollution into perspective. It's beautiful out there, and I can't wait to relax with the man I love!

Moving past all of the mushy stuff.... today's eats have been all about the B-MAN aka breakfast (yes, I just made that up, and yes, I know it's really dumb)! After the typical morning green machine juice, I munched down a combo bowl of cereal that included Quaker Oatmeal Squares and Cinnamon Cheerios with Silk. I love both of these cereals, but the Cinnamon Cheerios really made it today.

For lunch I had a Thomas' Bagel Thin topped with almond butter and apple slices. The rest of the apple was consumed upon preparation. What?? I couldn't wait!

Yep, I make faces with my food.

I'm sure that I speak for many, when I say that I can eat breakfast at any time of the day. While I wouldn't say that it is my favorite meal of the day, it definitely ties for first with lunch and dinner (hehe)!

Now my belly is full and I'm ready to take on these last few hours with these children! See ya!


What are your Memorial Day plans?


What is your favorite meal of the day and why?

chocolate brownie bites

Happy hump day people!

Do you ever have those days where you just want to eat any and everything in sight? Welp, that's my day today! Seriously, I can't stop eating! I started my morning with green juice, followed by a mixed bowl of Quaker Oatmeal Squares and cinnamon Cheerios. That wasn't enough so I munched down a handful of raw cashews which luckily got me to lunch time. I had a salad drizzled with Caesar dressing, a leftover croissant from last night's awesome dinner, and now I'm about to pop an Amy's dinner into the microwave! And I'm already thinking about what I'm going to have for a snack later... sheeeesh! What is wrong with me today! Fatty-boombalatty!

I figured I should stay on the topic of food and being a tubbo, so I wanted to share a recipe with you guys! I made these ooey-gooey chocolatey brownie bites while I was on my vegan cleanse. Err.. that lasted a long time. Point being-- not only are these little treats to die for, they are also vegan, gluten-free, and low sugar! Sounds like a quadruple win to me!

Chocolate Coconut Brownie Bites
1/2 cup + 2 T buckwheat flower
1/2 cup + 2 T brown rice flower
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/8 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks

Mix all dry ingredients together and set aside. Mix all wet ingredients together, and then combine with dry. Using a spoon (or ice cream scoop), dollop batter into mini cup cake liners. Cook for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove and enjoy!

Don't forget to lick the bowl!

Leaning tower of amazing.

Don't forget a smear of nut butter! ;-)

Moist center!

These things turned out SO great, and were the perfect size! I loved them because they had a brownie AND cake like consistency (best of both worlds if you ask me), and they were moist on the inside because of the apple sauce! Plus, they are low-sugar so you don't have to feel guilty about popping 2... or 7 into your mouth!

Hope you enjoy!

guilt-less eating

Just another manic Monday here! The morning started off in quite a tizzy with 2 little boys doing lots of screaming and fussing. Between the toy jacking, finger pinching, and bloody lip, you could definitely tell it was going to be a loooong day. Although the boys gave me quite a run for my money today, I couldn't help but love on them. I mean really, who couldn't smile at the sight of this...


Dragon Boy Finn



Duckie Baby Milo

So, remember Saturday when I was debating what to do about my 21 day vegan cleanse? Well, after getting through half of day 6, and much deliberation, I raised the white flag. I couldn't handle it anymore. I could feel my body yerning for something. Something more than vegetables. More than grains. More than beans. I needed substance, meat, and happiness. I first felt so guilty, but after receiving a few comments from you guys, I realized that my happiness is all that matters. So, I threw in the towel. And now, not only do I feel great, I feel energized and I feel like my mind is at ease! Thanks again to all of you who offered your support and advice! It is so much appreciated!

This morning, for breakfast, I had a glass of green juice which consisted of romaine, cucumber, asparagus, beets, apple and strawberries. After my juice, I felt the usual hunger pains, so guess what I did? I ATE! I didn't have to wait until noon to eat a salad, either. I poured myself a small bowl of wheat Chex with milk, and munched that baby down. It was good, too! It felt so awesome to eat cereal. And milk. I ate it without any guilt, too!

Around lunch time, my stomach was hurting a bit, and I didn't have much of an appetite. Knowing that I needed to put something into my belly, I went to my go-to choice for the circumstances. A smoothie!

In my smoothie:
1 cup mixed berries
1 banana
Huge handful of baby spinach
1 cup silk soy milk
1 scoop brown rice protien powder
1 scoop vanilla whey protien powder
1 T cocoa powder

This smoothie had such a soupy consistancy, that I ended up pouring it into a mug to slurp it down. It was great, and just what my tummy needed!

Instead of worrying about eating veggies for a snack, I had a bowl of fresh fruit!


Apple and Kiwi

My long day finally ended, and now I'm at home working on filing a DBA for my business. That means I will officially be a business owner soon. Now that is weird! But I am so excited, and can't wait to start doing what I love! I guess I should find some clients first, eh? Do you need an event planner? ;-)

I hope you all have a fantastic night, I'll be working working and working!

healthified oatmeal cookies

Good morning! I hope your weekends are off to a fantastic start. I woke this morning with a scratchy throat... and I'm really excited ticked about it. Thats what I get for smooching on two little boys with runny noses all week!

Today is day 6 of my cleanse and I'm going to be honest, I'm feeling super discouraged about it. I'm not sure what it is, but I just don't want to do it anymore. I'm not finding it difficult to eat the foods, but more that I don't feel like I should be restricting myself from certain things. I know that food doesn't equal happiness, but it definitely shouldn't equal unhappiness.

Like this morning, I woke up to make my green juice, and realized that I didn't have any broccoli and my romaine was more than on it's last leg. So, I substituted baby spinach for the broccoli and used my almost-brown romaine anyway. The juice tasted fine, but it annoyed me that I woke up feeling like I had obligations. It's the weekend, and after a 60 hour work week, all I want to do is relax. I don't want to wake up, and have to haul my tired butt to the grocery store to buy fresh produce, and then spend the rest of my day worrying about working my schedule around what I'm going to eat.

With that being said, I've decided that I'm going to continue with what I've been doing on the week days for sure, and when it comes to the weekend, I will drink my juice, still eat my veggies, and incoorporate as much vegan, gluten-free, low-sugar options as possible. But, if my day is planned around a friend's 2 year old's pool party that will consist of BBQ and beer (yes, that's my day today), I'm not going to not eat, and sit there miserably. I feel like as long as I'm eating well the majority of my time, how can I feel bad about that?

So how do I feel about this? I'm torn. Am I awesome for trying or a loser for quiting? Part of me feels guilty, but the other part of me says not to. How can I be mad at myself for giving up, cold turkey, almost everything I ate in my normal day to day life? That's an accomplishment in itself, right? So how I can I feel bad about that? I can't. And I shouldn't. But I do. Part of me says "but I made it 6 days" and the other part says "you only made it 6 days". I feel proud of myself, and I feel like a failure. Well, I can't be both, so I've decided to go with the better of the two, and cut out all of the negative about it. I still plan on drinking my juice and eating my veggies. I just want to be able to eat an occasional bowl of oatmeal made with milk, a chicken salad, and maybe even a peice of cheese. I don't want to live off of beans, hummus, and brown rice. I'm sorry, but I don't want to, and I wont. I'm going to do what makes me happy, and as long as my body and mind are happy and feel good, to me, that is all that matters.

Now, to get back to what the actual title of this post is... healthified oatmeal cookies! Last week I did a guest post on Sarah's blog about ways to turn our every day junk food into something healthy. I featured a cookie recipe that I found somewhere on the internet, but drastically modified it. Here ya go!

Healthified Oatmeal Cookies:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup raw walnut pieces
1/4 cup raw almond slivers
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup skim milk
1 banana
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Combine and stir all ingredients together, until mixed well. Roll into ball in hand. (yes, this will be a sticky mess) and flatten on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and pan, and enjoy!

I'm off to eat that bowl of oatmeal I mentioned a few minutes ago! Unless I start to feel like a total loser again. See ya!

day four & five

It's Friday, Friday... gotta get down on Friday! How sucky is it that every time I say the word Friday I can't help but sing a little Rebecca Black? She's one awful smart singer!

So, yesterday was day 4 of 21. I started off the morning with the usual green juice and once again, loved every bit of it. I'm still thrilled that I get excited to wake up and drink my vegetables. Knowing that the first thing (other than water) that enters my body every day is a plethora of veggies, I can't help but feel proud of myself.

For lunch I had a large plate of slightly steamed broccoli, drizzled with a squirt of flax oil, and some salt and peppa. I was planning of saving half of the broc for dinner, but ended up eating the entire plate. Oops!

I paired the broccoli with a sweet potato, sprinkled with a tiny bit of cinnamon. It was fantastic!

 

After lunch I snacked on an un pictured banana with almond butter. Seriously, I could eat my body weight in this stuff. The mixture of the sweetness from the banana and the nutty almond flavor just make me die inside every time I take a bite. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Unfortunately, my week days are pretty hectic, and I work 16 hour days on Thursdays and Fridays. What do I do? I wait tables. How do I eat dinner while waiting tables? I don't. It sucks... but it's necessary, and I gotta do what I gotta do to pay the bills. Typically, I get off work anywhere from 11pm to 12am. Normally, after my shift, I'd grab a quick bite to eat from the restaurant and call it a night. Well, now that I'm on this cleanse... I can't eat anything that my restaurant serves and really don't want to be eating so late anyway. By the time I get home, I'm just ready to crawl into bed. The whole point of my rambling is that I didn't eat dinner. And while it's awesome because I wake up looking extra skinny, it sucks because it's not healthy and I also wake up starving, ready to devour any and everything! Seriously, the first thing in my head this morning was pizza and beer.

Of course though, I was a good girl and stuck to my water and green juice, which really helped take the edge off of my starvation issues. I made it through to lunch where I munched down a huge salad made of romaine, field greens, cucumbers, walnuts, and one large strawberry, all tossed in yummy honey mustard. So far, out of the three salad dressings I have tried, this is the only one I can stand. Something's gonna have to change because I still have 22 more days of this crap and I've got a feeling HM will get really old, really quick.

Along with my salad I had another black bean taco like I did on day 3. This time, I used a brown rice tortilla rather than a spelt one. I filled the tort with melted daiya cheese, black beans, avocado, and baby spinach. I definitely prefer the spelt tortilla over the brown rice, but it was still yummy and I ate it all!

Tonight will probably be the same, where I don't eat any dinner. I've got some brainstorming to do this weekend as to how I'm going to get meals into my body. Or I could just quit my job? YEAH! Problem solved!

As of day five, I haven't noticed any big changes in my body. Other than dropping about 2 pounds, nothing is any different. I don't know that I was expecting anything different, but something would be nice just to reassure myself that I am doing this for a reason. Hmph... only time will tell, and I'm determined to complete at least 7 days before I throw in the towel! Just kidding! Or am I?

See you all tomorrow with a yummy recipe!