Guest Blogger, Birthday Dinner

I got all my "chores" done last night that I wanted to, including a 1/2 hour of cardio. I decided to play Outdoor Adventure on the Wii. There is an area where you can choose to play as a single player. Bingo! I opted to do the "exercise" tab which included everything from easy/hard full body, easy/hard upper & lower body and full body exercises. I wore my polar F4 and was utterly shocked at the results! Check it out;

TIME:26:58
TIME IN ZONE:26:36
AVG HR:155
MAX HR:182
CALORIES BURNED:225

Not bad for a game! I would've burned maybe only 100 calories more running on the treadmill for 30 minutes. I was feeling the pain in my muscles pretty much all the way through and was a sweaty mess at the end. I really gave it my all keeping in mind that it was my cardio for the day and I'm impressed with the end result! And it was fun! I did things like log jumping, hurdles, kayaking, pipe riding, mine cart racing....Yipee! I highly recommend this game.

I got up at 8am and made myself a lovely bowl of oats;


-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Old Wessex 5-Grain cereal
-cinnamon
-1 Tbsp pumpkin butter
-1 Tbsp crunched up pecan pieces


After I ate I got to work on the lasagna for my hubby's b-day dinner. First, I got the sauce going. I used 1 lb of extra lean ground beef, an onion, 4 cloves of garlic (we like our garlic!), 1 can of tomato sauce, I 28oz can of diced tomatoes, 2 Tbsp of tomato paste, hot pepper flakes, basil, oregano, S & P.


I like to use this type of tomato paste. Because it's in a tube and stays in the fridge, it doesn't go bad like the canned stuff does. I found this particular one at Whole Foods.


Another layer that I always put in my lasagna is made up of 1 egg, 2 cups of ricotta, 1 package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained and 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan cheese. For my hubby's b-day lasagna I use 2 cups of cottage cheese because that's how he likes it best.


Last but not least, the final component....noodles. I usually use WW noodles and I don't bother boiling them first. I almost always make my lasagna ahead of time, so the noodles absorb enough moisture from the sauce while it sits.


I baked the lasagna in a 375* oven for 45 minutes, covered. Then I uncover it and put it back in for another 15 minutes. Once it comes out of the oven, I let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. This makes it easier to cut. Here's the finished product!
The charity hockey game we went to started at noon so I packed myself something to eat. Good thing I did because when we got there, the concession booths weren’t open. DD and I quickly went on the hunt for eats for the three of them. The only thing we could find was French fries. Wouldn’t you know that by then time we got back, the concession stand had opened?! Mind you, the line up was about a mile long! Anywho, I brought a gingerbread Clif bar (YUM) and a gala apple.

Of course, I ate a handful of fries….who can resist fresh hot fries?!

And now, on to my guest blogger....DD! She was extremely excited to do this because she watches me write my blog pretty much every night. Occasionally, she asks me to take picture's of her food to post. She really gets a kick out of reading my comments and I think she is my biggest fan. She wrote a little blurb and took a few picture's to share. I hope you enjoy it!

Hi I am DD and I am going to help my mommy with her blog!!!!! I had a container of French fries for lunch (I was not to fond of that.) We got to go to a hockey game!!!!! After that we got to skate WITH the Storm players and got autographs. This morning at around 9:00am Charlie and Pepper are becoming friends because Charlie was in a box and Pepper jumped up and Charlie did not like that at all so he started swinging at him and Pepper must have thought he was playing so he swung back at him it was hilarious to see :D!!!!!! Well do not mind my spelling because I am only 9 years old. Oh by the way my name is Sarah :). Here is a picture of my lunch and a picture of Charley and Pepper!!!!





Thanks, DD! As you can see, 2 of the cats are becoming accustomed to one another. My oldest cat is still on the fence with this whole kitten thing! What is it with cats and boxes??? I've yet to meet a cat that doesn't like a good box!

After the game, DD and I ran a few errands at the mall and then came home and relaxed a bit. It was nice to finally have some down time!

So finally we make it to the birthday dinner. My hubby decided while I was out to make a fresh loaf of bread in the bread machine....oh yeah! Here's my plate (I even pulled out the fancy ones!)....

Here's my naked cheesecake....


And this is the coveted pecan caramel sauce that my hubby loves so much...


And this here is my piece of deliciousness!


I am sitting here now like a stuffed pig, sipping on a peppermint tea to help digest all that food. Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows that I don't eat pasta because it sits too heavy. Well, I will confirm that things haven't changed! While it tasted superb going down, I'm paying for the heavy meal now. You know, some things are just worth it and my hubby's b-day is certainly one of them.

I've got a pile of magazine's sitting by the couch waiting to be read and I think tonight will be the perfect time to make a dent in them! I hope everyone enjoyed this post! I had fun writing it...

Bye for now!!