Mini Pumpkin Pies

Most of you know how much I love Fall and of course Pumpkins!  This has turned out to be the most fantastic day in Kansas City.  The chiefs won!  And the temp is about 70 something... perfect for a starbucks pumpkin spice latte!

I was doing some e-mail catching up today and ran across this recipe from Kraft and just had to share! Mini Pumpkin Pies!!!  I haven't tried it out yet, but I will be sure to put all the ingredients on this weeks shopping list!

prep time 20 min

total time 1 hr

makes 6 servings

What You Need
1 pkg. (4 oz.) graham cracker tart shells (6 shells)
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, softened
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar, divided
2 Eggs, divided
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans
6 Tbsp. thawed COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping

Make It
HEAT oven to 350ºF.

PLACE tart shells on baking sheet.
Mix Neufchatel, 1 Tbsp. sugar and 1 egg with whisk until well blended.
Spoon into tart shells.
MIX pumpkin, spice, remaining sugar and egg until well blended; spoon over Neufchatel layers in tart shells. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE 40 min. or until centers are set. Cool completely. Serve topped with COOL WHIP.

Biscuit Continued.

Super Excited, we started telling immediate family members and a couple of friends. Missing periods makes it so hard to "Plan" and to "Try" to get pregnant.  So this was such a shock and we just downsized from a two bedroom lower level apartment to a 1 bedroom second story apartment.... ugh stairs.

The following Monday I called my doctor and scheduled an appointment. We weren't sure how far along we were since I do miss periods. We were able to have an ultrasound and found out that we were only 4 weeks. Our originally thinking was 8-9 weeks. 4 weeks is ok, we are still going to have a baby!

Proud Daddy

Lots of concerns were on my mind, and at first I was scared to death. I tried not to stress, but It's easier to say "don't stress" then to do it. First off, my size scares me to death. As all of you know, I am morbidly obese. It's very risky. I talked to my doctor about my concerns and she does realize the risks of being my size, but she also reassured me that she is not going to treat me like a high risk until that time comes. She said all pregnancies are risky and that we are going to take this one month at a time. I love my doctor. She is fabulous.

We went back a month later and had another ultrasound.  We found out we were 9 weeks.  We got to hear the heartbeat..  that is the most awesome sound in the world!  And Biscuit was dancing for us!  He/She was just a wiggling and shaking their bootie!  It was so cute. 

We have been discussing if we should find out the sex of the baby.  When in your life will you be able to have a surprise like that?   (well maybe if you weren't trying to have a baby and one day you find out your pregnant... thats a wonderful surprise)  After browsing through baby departments, we decided that there weren't alot of neutral items.  Most of the neutral items were still geared towards boys.  So we decided to be prepared and find out if it's a boy or girl.  We find out on October 22.  I'm hoping to be able to move that date up a couple weeks.  It's so hard to wait!  My husband and I have been running through names and have a few selected. It will be much easier when we know the sex of the baby.  I should be 21 weeks at that time.

I hope everyone is having a good summer!  I can't wait for fall!  This 2 week heat wave of 100+ degrees weather has extended it's welcome!

I'd Like for you to meet Biscuit!

So I haven't been blogging very much lately.  I use to be so big on looking at all the bargin websites and finding all those deals and steals... however, we moved a couple months ago and I realized that one individual does not need 12 bottles of shampoo and my husband does not need over 15 packages of razors! We have quite the collection of personal goods in our new bathroom. 

The other major reason for the lack of shopping and posting those good steals is that my husband and I found out on June 25th, that we were expecting our first child!  I'd like for all of you to meet Biscuit.

This was at 9 weeks and was our second ultrasound.  I have been diagnoised with PCOS (altho the only symptom I had was missed periods) and for the past couple of years my periods were not regular... they weren't even close to regular.  I've been batteling irregular periods my whole life, so when I missed my period, I didn't think much of it.  My Husband and I would take a test and the result was Negative... time and time again... negative. 

Well not on June 25th!  I went in thinking the result was negative... but to my surprise, that stick put up two lines so quick, I didn't even have to wait the 3 minutes.  My mouth dropped and excuse the language, but the first words out of my mouth was "Holy Sh!t". Then I asked my husband to get out the directions and check what two lines meant.  We coudln't believe it.  We were going to be parents.  We went out and bought 3 more test.  All came back positive! 

Soooo ready...

for some FOOTBALL!   Spring Training has started and I'm so exicted for Football to start.  Hopefully the Chiefs will not suck so much this year!  1 more month until the first preseason game!  Yay!

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake

A Summer time favorite!!!  I had this posted on my weight loss blog, (however I'm deciding to cancel that blog and just use one) and wanted to share it here!

Was POINTS® Value: 9
Now POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 30 min
Cooking Time: 25 min




Ingredients
24 medium strawberries, about 10 oz, hulled and quartered (reserve 6 whole berries for garnish)
2 Tbsp orange juice
2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
4 Tbsp reduced-calorie margarine, chilled and cut into pieces
2/3 cup(s) fat-free skim milk
2 tsp fat-free skim milk
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup(s) fat-free whipped topping



Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. Combine quartered strawberries and orange juice; toss to combine. Set aside.

3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, 6 tablespoons of sugar, baking powder and salt. Add margarine; mix together with a fork until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2/3 cup of milk; mix until a manageable dough forms.

4. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1-inch thickness. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cookie cutter (or round glass), cut dough into six circles. Transfer rounds to baking sheet. Brush tops with 2 teaspoons milk and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar.

5. Bake until puffed up and golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and, while still warm, split in half crosswise (like an English muffin).

6. Spoon 1/3 cup of strawberries onto bottom half of each shortcake round. Top with sugar-coated second half. Spoon 2 tablespoons of whipped topping on top and garnish each with a whole strawberry.



WW renovated Strawberry Shortcake by:
Using reduced-calorie margarine instead of butter in the dough.
Swapping fat-free milk for whole milk.
Coating the dough with fat-free milk instead of beaten egg.
Reducing the amount of sugar in the dough and using orange juice to replace sugar in the berry filling.




*recipe and picture from WW*

Wow It's been a while!

It's two months since I've posted on here...  Honestly I don't have much to report.  I've been keeping busy with work.  I've been doing a lot of local traveling lately, and it sure is wearing me out!  My Husband and I finally solved our flooding problem with the apartment... we moved!  We terminated our lease and have moved to a nicer happier community.  We both like it a lot. 

Not much else going on for now... I hope everyone is having a great summer and keeping cool!

Bounce Back From A Binge!

I recently read an article by Cynthia Sass, R.D. about easy ways to bounce back from a binge. I know that I have a hard time not splurging on some good food and thought I’d share what she wrote.


1. Do A Reality Check. As full and heavy as you may feel, the numbers don’t lie. 3,500 calories make one pound of body fat. So unless you are six slices of cake and drank eight glasses of wine, you are in the clear.

2. Get Enough Water! Drink 8 - 10 cups throughout the day to flush out any extra sodium that could cause water retention.

3. Eat Balanced Meals. Starving yourself after a binge often backfires. It slows your metabolism and it sets you up for another binge! So eat!

4. Fill Up On Fiber! Consuming too much of the wrong foods can lead to short-term constipation and bloating. Keep your digestive system humming with fiber-rich foods such as black beans, artichokes, raspberries and barley.

5. Work Up A Sweat. Stay on that stair-climber for an additional 15 minutes or park farther from the door at the store or office and you’ll burn extra calories!

When I’m trying to really stay focused on my diet and I binge, I am very guilty of #3. I think if I just eat less or skip a meal then it will make up for the damage of my binge. I guess I was Wrong! I knew long term starvation would make your body store the fat it already has and you don’t lose, but I didn’t know short term would do that also!

Turkey Burgers! Yum!

Turkey Burgers…Diet Friend or Diet Foe?

While I’m still learning and training on my job, I have a lot of down time and have been catching up on a lot of reading. I found this article interesting because how many of you heard that turkey is always better then hamburger? Me too, so I started buying ground turkey instead of hamburger.. then I read this article from Shape.

Just because it’s a turkey burger and not a beef hamburger, doesn’t mean it’s healthier. Some of Turkey Burgers contain dark meat and skin, which can make them high in saturated fat and calories. (Sotiria Tzakas Everett-nutritionist) To save over 200 calories and 7 grams of fat with a turkey burger instead of beef burger, you need to select a ground turkey that is at least 90% lean and contains fewer then 5 grams of saturated fat.

After reading this article, I headed to the store. The downside to eating healthy turkey is it is expensive! 93% lean is 3.50 a pound and 99% lean is 5.00 a pound! It’s also very bland! I made a 99% lean turkey burger for me and my husband and we had to choke it down with about 3 glasses of water! Next time I’ll be sure to mix in some healthy flavors to spice it up!

Also, does anyone know how healthy the 97% lean ground hamburger is compared to the turkey? I’ve been researching and haven’t found anything yet. Thanks!

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines, come fly the NOT to friendly skies. I guess that’s not all true. I had a wonderful flight out of Kansas City into Tampa.


For months, I have been worried about fitting on the airline since the Kevin Smith/Southwest Airlines incident. If you’re not familiar with the story, He got kicked off the plane because he was too big. I stressed myself out, made myself sick for months worrying about this. I even bought an airline extender seatbelt to try to not draw attention to myself.

So Vacation day arrives. I sit beside my 7 year old nephew and use my extender. I leave the armrest down, because that is their policy, It’s a tight squeeze, but the armrests are down. The plane takes off, not a word is said to me. Yes! I made it! All the stress and worries are gone!

If you don’t know about southwest’s “Customer of Size” Policy, you can find it here. But plain and simple, if you cant fit comfortably with the armrest down, then they can make you buy a second ticket. It doesn’t matter if you have someone smaller (like my nephew or spouse) next to you. It’s for everyones safety. If the flight is not a sell out, they will refund your money.

So we are getting ready to leave Tampa. I’ve checked in my luggage, I’ve received my boarding pass and I’m waiting for my airplane to board. We arrived early so we had a couple hours to sit and wait. Well my husband and I decided to move closer to the gate and wait. He went to the laptop station and my mom came over to visit. The lady boarding the flight ahead of us asked me twice if I was waiting on someone or if I was flying out. I told her flying out both times. The second time she went and told one of the customer service people at SWA. I’m guess she went and told her that there is a HUGE woman waiting to fly out because the Customer Service Lady came over to talk to me about their “Customer of Size” Policy and telling me that I should purchase another ticket. Well you guess it. I am flaming pissed. Mom is there and helped handle the situation. She told the lady we are on our way back to Kansas City and we were never approached about our size or informed of the policy. We told her that I flew out with my little nephew and that’s how we are flying back. She went ahead and told me for his safety I need that extra seat. I got lucky that I didn’t have to buy another seat because it was Kansas City’s fault I didn’t buy an additional seat in the first place. So she was turning Kansas City in. She gave me a pre-boarding pass and a sign that reserved a seat next to me. She also told me that my nephew is still allowed to sit next to me. WTF??? Seriously??? You just told me it’s not safe and that’s why you make “Customers of Size” purchase two seats!

I wrote a complaint to SWA and let them know how discriminating it was to sit in an airline with 100’s of passengers, and yes many were large, and be told that I am too large. I didn’t even get the chance to sit in the seat! Just because I look to big you approach me and make me feel like shit? I don’t think so. And then you tell me it’s your policy that you have to buy two seats even if you planned on having a family member sit next to me, because of Safety! And you then proceed to tell me after you’ve made me feel like shit about my size that he can still sit next to me? Oh I don’t think so! I’m waiting to hear back from SWA on my complaint. I’ll keep you posted!

Tonya, you just got a job, where will you go?... I'm going to DisneyWorld!

Family Vacation! What an experience! It was me, my husband, mom, dad, brother, sister n law, and their 4 kids. We all flew to Tampa and traveled east to Orlando to spend 8 wonderful days there! Thank you mom for the tickets!

I had a fabulous trip, despite a few family members being jerks 90% off the time. I had my moments when I would lose it and get hateful, but that was only because of someone else being a rude buttface. My poor mother just wanted us to all have fun, and all we did was bicker. Don’t get me wrong, we had a lot of fun, but the bickering was too much. No one could agree on what to do, and when someone decided, it wasn’t what someone else wanted to do. Pretty much, I felt like we did what my brother wanted to do.

I did have a fabulous time though. It was so nice to get away from it all. Especially knowing I had a job to come home too! Unemployment had ran out and we were very LOW on money, so it came at a perfect time. *Side Story: 5-6 years ago, the same situation happened with my father. He got laid off from his job of 29 years. He applied and interviewed at several places. His unemployment ran out. The good Lord was looking out for my family. The radio station was giving away a trip for 4 to Orlando. My whole family, heck the whole city, had been trying to win these trips. I can’t remember if it was one trip a day, or one trip a week, they were giving away, but anyways, it was the very last trip, I was sitting at work at 8am, and they played the magical touchtones, I tried and tried to win it for my family, no luck. Just then my work phone rings and my it’s my dad. He starts a casual conversation asking me if I got in on the radio, and Moms voice came on air. She was the correct caller! She wont the trip to Disney! Dad was trying to make sure I was listening to the radio with out giving it away. Oh it was so exciting. (A side note, when the radio stations had money, they gave away trips and concerts and prizes all the time. Mom is the luckiest person I know, she also won a trip to Hawaii from this same radio station!) Just shortly after, Dad got a call and a job offer. Thank you God. So we are off to Florida and Dad has a job when he gets back. Pretty much the same situation with me 5 years later.*

We experienced, Disney, Orange Groves, Kennedy Space Center, M&M world and Gators! Driving to Kennedy Space Center we saw Gators just chilling on the side of the road in some little watery swamps, It was so exciting, we almost missed a couple of exits looking for gators! The kids had such a great time at Disney. Lily got so use to use taking a bazillion pictures, she started stopping in front of every tree and flower and asking to take her picture! One of the cutest moments with Lily was when she asked Tinker Bell and the Fairies if they could make her fly! Chezney got to meet his favorite Pluto and the big kids loved the bigger roller coasters. I will be honest, I was not a fan of Epcot. It’s basically just some neat buildings, and a lot of shopping. We walked so much that day at that park. I think someone told us it’s about 7 miles if you walk the whole thing, which we did.

I had a few depressing moments on vacation. I didn’t get to ride a lot of rides because I was afraid I wouldn’t fit. So I missed out on a lot of fun. Also, I got stuck in a turn stall trying to board the train. It was one of their older ones, and they are smaller and I just couldn’t get the sucker to spin around. I tried to not cry, but when I saw the line forming behind me and my 5 year old Niece kept saying, “Kaka is stuck” Louder and Louder each time. (They call me Kaka J ) The tears just rolled. This is also the day that it decided to rain cat and dogs and we were so wet it looked like we went swimming with our clothes on. I was able to make my way through the crowd and I saw a handicap entrance. So I went through it and boarded the train. A few minutes later a grumpy old man that works there cam back and loudly stated “YOU WENT THROUGH AN EXIT” I said yes because I don’t fit through the turn stall. at this point im already upset, but he couldn’t hear me so I had to say it louder 3 more times! By this time, everyone on the train in my section knew I was so fat I couldn’t fit though the turn stall. And they were talking about me. I wanted to just turn around and be like, “The old man was hard of hearing, not me!” but I didn’t. I tried to regain composure, but it was hard. That incident and the rain ruined the day so we went back to the rental home.

Vacation was good. It was needed. But I was never happier to get back home. Keep a look out for my Southwest Airline Post in a few days. You think the story about the turn stall was bad, just wait. have a good day everyone!