Coming Back From A Break

So I've been bad and haven't posted in a week...oops! I was super busy planning and throwing my husbands 40th birthday party here at our house, and now I am busy getting ready for a little road trip which I am so super excited about. But I have been able to find time in between packing, cleaning and getting my car expected and ready to prepare some blogs so Saturday there will be a new blog post up...pinky promise!

Crunchy Sweet Potato Chips

One of my weaknesses is chips, I can never get enough. I especially love the thick, hard, crunchy ones like Kettle Chips. But every time I eat them all I can think is "I shouldn't be doing this, I need to stop, no more Lindsey no more, holy crap I ate the whole bag" wah wah wah! So to fulfill my craving of crunchy yummy chips I made myself some sweet potato chips.

Supplies:

Sweet Potato

Potato Peeler

Mandolin Slicer

Lite Salt

Mrs Dash Garlic Seasoning

Mrs Dash Onion Seasoning

Peel the sweet potato then slice it with the mandolin slicer. 

Slicey Slicey

 Spray some of the olive oil spray onto a cooking pan then sprinkle a bit of each seasonings onto the pan. Line the sweet potato slices onto the pan. Spay the slices with more of the olive oil spray and sprinkle more of the seasonings on top. Bake for  minutes in a  degree oven flipping twice.

So yummy and fulfilling!

Fun Tanning Table

It has gotten pretty dang hot here so I thought that it was time to search the back of my closet for all my capris and dresses, but then I remember that my legs are Casper white from being hidden in jeans and sweats for so long. I have a bottle of Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer to help me out but I thought I would also try to get a little color on my legs the natural way...by the sun. I'm not a big tanner, I am actually more like a vampire and pretty much hide from the sun, but since I am thinner this summer and feeling a bit more confident I am ready to wear my shorts and tanks again and I would like my exposed skin to be somewhat tan. So every morning I have been going outside and soaking up the rays for about 20 minutes, 10 minutes on each side. But I've discovered something about myself, I get so bored and impatient while tanning! I end up bringing out a stack of magazines and my iPad (which I cant even see in the sun) to try and keep myself entertained. Plus I have my phone and my mini speaker and my tanning sunscreen and sunglasses and head phones....I end up with half the house outside with me. So I came up with a fun, cooky DIY tanning table to keep all my stuff nice and neat.

  The supplies I used were an old box (this is the only box we had but it worked cause its sturdy)...

...a box cutter, stapler, glue, one piece of a child proof cabinet lock, one piece of a plastic shoe hanger and some paint.
 It is a modge podge of supplies that's for sure.

The first thing I did was cut the flaps off of the box. I then placed a plastic cup on the bottom of the box and traced around the top of the cup, I then cut a smaller circle inside of my line. I also cut a square in the side of the box the size of my iPad.

I painted the whole box blue to try and cover up the fact that its a beer box.

While the paint was drying I cut one of the large flaps into a square. I then cut two of the smaller flaps the same height as the square.

I then folded in each side of the two smaller flaps.

And I glued them to the larger flap that I had made into a square. I then took another piece of a different flap and glued it to the bottom of these pieces making a half box.

I also folded up some of the card board to make a little iPod stand.

I then painted all these pieces blue and let everything dry over night.

Using more glue and lots of staples I attached the shoe holder, the child proof cabinet lock and the half box to the tanning box. I also stuck a plastic cup into the hole that I cut in the bottom of the box. I attached the folded up piece of cardboard iPod holder to the top of the box.

My lovely tanning table!

 I put my tanning sunscreen into the shoe holder...

 ...I hung my earphones and my sunglasses from the child cabinet lock...

...placed another plastic cup full of ice water into the other plastic cup that occupies the hole that I cut, and I put my magazines in the half box. 

I put my iPod on its awesome little holder then attached it to my mini speaker which sits comfortably on top of the box along with my cell phone.

My iPad sits happily inside of the box which makes it so much easier to see.

Its kind of a goofy thing but it is super functional and I absolutely love it! My goal is to make it out of wood here in the near future so stay tuned!

Glenwood Springs (C.I.C)

I've only been to Glenwood Springs a couple of times but I love that little town! So when I got the opportunity to go up there with my husband the other day I thought it would be the perfect time to do a Curious In Colorado on this amazing, historic town.

For being such a little town Glenwood Springs has a lot to do! I have only done a few of them since I've only been a few times but I have seriously enjoyed everything I have done and look forward to doing so much more.

The drive up to Glenwood Springs from Denver is so beautiful, I love it.

The first time I went up to Glenwood Springs was with my dad. We just randomly decided to take a day trip up there and of course we didn't research or plan anything before we left so when we got there we really had no clue what there was to do or where a good place to eat was, which wasn't good since we were starving when we got into town. We were just driving down 6th Street and saw Chomp's Deli and thought we would give it a try. I am so happy that we did because it was so good! I got the Chicken Salad And Provolone Cheese Sandwich and it was beyond delicious, I highly recommend eating at Chomp's when you are in town....yum!

Then next thing we did was go to the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. Right down the road from Chomp's was were we caught the gondola which took us up the mountain to the Adventure Park which was awesome. At the park we went on a few of the rides, we saw the 3D movies a few times and my son played in the giant sand box for awhile. There was so much to do but it was getting late and we had a long drive home so we didn't get to do everything but next time we go we will definitely be doing more, like exploring the caves. 

The one thing my dad and I really wanted to do while in Glenwood Springs was visit Doc Holliday's grave but at the time we had no clue where it was so we left without getting to do it. So when I went up to Glenwood Springs with my husband it was the first thing on my list of things to do!

I read some reviews online and every person talked about the hike up to the cemetery and boy were they all right! It was a pretty steep hike and being so high up in altitude, my heart was beating out of my chest!

But the views along the way were gorgeous!

Being the Tombstone and Western fan that I am I was so excited when we made it to the top and found Doc Holliday's grave. So worth the hike!

Now the next couple things I have not done yet but I will do them. 
The hubby and I are talking about taking a weekend trip to Glenwood Springs and the next couple things are definitely on our list of things to do.

We both really want to stay at the Hotel Colorado. It is one of the oldest hotels in Colorado opening in 1893. Many presidents have stayed at this hotel and of course there are plenty of ghost stories, who doesn't love that?!

And of course we want to go to the hot springs, that's what Glenwood Springs is all about!

Glenwood Springs is such a nice little old town, a town that I will be making many more trips up to. If you ever find yourself in the mountains of Colorado I would definitely suggest stopping by Glenwood Springs and taking a look around.

http://www.visitglenwood.com/ 

Unbelievably Unmotivated

 Today I am posting a weight update, unfortunately its not a good one.

Back in May I posted a Ready To Get Re-Motivated blog because I really wanted/needed to get back to the healthy, fit person I loved being. I did get back in the groove for about a week then my good friend Mr. Stress decided to drop by and he hasn't left.

When I get super stressed, like I am now, its like my whole body shuts down. My head is yelling at me "get up lazy butt, go for a run..." "don't be a quitter..." "your gaining back the weight you busted your butt to lose..." but my body goes "I'm perfectly comfortable sitting in this chair, thanks though!" The fight between my head and body ultimately leads to me becoming a bit depressed and then I totally shut down. Everything feels like such a chore so I end up spending most of my day sitting in my chair watching TV, eating food that I grabbed from the cabinet or food that I just popped in the microwave.

Super long story short I am still 175 pounds which isn't too terrible but its not where I want to be at all. I am desperately struggling to get out of this funk but I will get out of it, I have so much coming up that I want to look and feel my best for. So bare with me! As soon as I do manage to get back to my healthy, fit self you will start seeing healthy recipes and exercise posts here on my blog once again. Thanks for sticking around!

If you have any advice that will help get me out of this lazy, unmotivated, fatigued place I am in I am all ears, just leave your comments below!

Night In New York

My very best friends birthday is tomorrow and I wanted to do something really special for her. She always talks about how much she loves New York City so I thought that a New York themed dinner  would be perfect!

 I decorated the table with a black table cloth, taxi inspired plates, the silhouette of New York's skyline and some decorative apples.

To get the taxi look I painted a plain white square plate checkered and placed the yellow round plate on top of that. I thought it looked pretty cool but then again I'm biased.

I cut the skyline silhouette out of black poster board. I looked up Silhouette Of New York's Skyline on Google then drew one of pictures I had found on the poster board. I used the twinkle lights I had from my New Years Camp In to try and bring the city to life. 

I cut a few stars out of the scrap pieces of poster board, painted them yellow then covered one side of them with gold glitter glue. I cut a tiny hole in the top of each star then slipped a piece of fishing line through the hole and hung it from the light over the table. 

I was going for a Broadway Show Marquee look when I made the birthday sign. I used a black poster board and a white poster board and again I cut out stars using scape pieces of poster board but this time I colored them gray and covered the big ones in silver glitter glue. I also lined her name in the silver glitter glue.

 Going right along with Broadway sign I had the Showtunes channel playing on our TV, it was awesome!

For dinner I made a couple pizzas. I used my sons New York taxi as decoration and I had a slideshow of pictures from New York playing on my iPad. 

For dessert I served mini New York Style cheesecakes which I found in the frozen section of my local grocery store.

I used one of these as her birthday cake.

To finish off the night I made us simple Cosmopolitans using citrus flavored vodka and cranberry juice.


You are such an amazing, caring, sweet, fun, outgoing, loving, wonderful person and the things you do and have done for me and my family are beyond amazing. We are so blessed and grateful to be able to call you a friend.
We love you!

Cheese Burger Burrito

Two of my husbands favorite foods are burritos and burgers so one night I decided to combine the two of them.

 Supplies:

Whole Grain Mission Wrap Tortillas

Diced Dill Pickle

Shredded Cheese Blend

Ground Turkey

Mustard

Ketchup

1/4 of an Onion Diced

The first thing I did was saute the onions using a bit of olive oil, I looked them until they were clear.

I then added the ground turkey to the pan with the onions. I seasoned the meat with my husbands McCormick's Steak Seasoning and cooked it until it was totally cooked through.

I grabbed one of the wrap tortillas and sprinkled some of the shredded cheese in the middle of it. I topped that with a bit of the diced pickles.

Over that I squirted a bit of the ketchup and mustard.

Then I added the turkey onion mixture and topped everything off with a bit more shredded cheese.

I then folded the burger burrito (side, side, roll) and placed it, seam side down, on my grilling pan. I let it sit until the seam was sealed and the tortilla had some nice brown grill marks on it, then I flipped it to grill the other side. 

These were seriously so delicious, my husbands first response was "put this on your must make again list" which is always a good sign.