S is for . . . So it begins

This week is the start of my get Tri ready challenge!

I have devised a training plan for the week that will hopefully help me not only get fit, but healthy too. I am at a happy weight at the moment, so i'm not so much doing this to lose kilos, but to help get my fitness from, well nothing. To hopefully able to complete a triathlon in a few short months.

So here is a basic look at my week and how I will be fitting exercise in. Trust me, If I can do it, so can you!

Monday!

When Ethan goes down for his afternoon nap I will use The Biggest Loser for half an hour. Followed by my simple 5 minute super work out! Fastest way to get your body pumping!

Tuesday!

After dinner, the whole family will go on a 5km walk together. (obviously this activity is weather dependant, if it is raining I will substitute by doing the 5 minutvve work out followed by my yoga dvd)

Wednesday!

I dont start Uni until the afternoon so I will be doing a morning walk with Ethan and the dog. Then we will do a family walk after dinner again. Ill also be doing the 5 minute workout again!

Thursday!

Is a hard day for me as I have uni all day. But I will try and get in at least a walk in the evening, obviously weather dependant

Friday!

Again I have uni in the afternoon so I will do a morning walk with Ethan, then in the afternoon I will do all three of the 5 minute workouts!

Saturday! 

With my Mr home I will be tackling my first run. It will not be a straight run but rather, ill be using the interval training method, in which I will run for 30 seconds and walk for 30 seconds around the block. it will only be short but I have to start somewhere!

Sunday!

The family and I will be going into the streets of the annual festival we have here. Im sure there will be lots of walking completed!

That is my biggest tip when it comes to training, especially in the early stages! DONT push it to hard, if it hurts (physically) then stop! But if its more a mental pain, push through. I believe that working out and being fit is just as much a mental thing as it is physical.

Also, look at your day to day activities, If you get to the end of the day and feel you haven't done anything, look back at your day. Did you spend time cleaning the floors? chasing your kids? doing the food shopping? or even having sex! Then you have burned calories and it is all better than sitting on your bum doing nothing!

My plan for the first few weeks is just an introduction back into fitness. I don't want to push my body  hard that i break down this early on. Just a smooth transition into fitness.

Bring it on!

O is for . . . Op shop

1 Op Shop

$20.00

Wanting clothes to dress up or down.

(vest no included - Valley Girl)

So happy with my final result. I now have some easy to wear clothes for uni or a (very rare) night out!

Linking up with "My Little Dummer Boys" for Wordless Wednesday

K is for . . . Kale Chips

Kale, Its green, Its leafy, It looks like spinach and not all that appealing. But believe me, this is one super food that is super tasty when cooked the right way!

Kale has so many health benefits its amazing! It is high in fibre and has zero fat! It is squashed full of antioxidants as well as Iron and Vitamin K. So to celebrate this delicious super leafy food I have made some chips, which might I add are super yummy and totally addictive! and I'll also be posting a super smoothie later in the evening, which is perfect for breakfast or for an after workout snack.

Kale Chips! (Can also be called Shrek chips, to help encourage little ones to give them a go)

Ingredients

- One head of Kale

- 1 tablespoon of Olive oil

- Sea salt

1- Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees, Then take the Kale and cut the leaves off the stem.

2- Cut the leaves into bite sized pieces and put into a bowl, coat with olive oil and 2 pinches of sea salt (Or around 8 turns of a salt grinder)

3- Place on a baking tray and put into the oven for 10 minutes, Take out of the oven when the ends of the leaves begin to turn brown.

4- Leave on the tray until the leaves are cool, Then they are ready to eat!

Seriously this is the most easy and tasty recipe I have ever used! I'm eating the chips as I write this and they are totally delicious and addictive! You have to make them, like, now!

Let me know what you think!

D is for . . . Damper

Happy Australia Day everyone.

I have decided today, that I would go back to the roots of Australia and bake some damper. Although I added a bit of an Aussie twist to make it a little more delicious!

Savoury Damper

Serves- depends on the size, I made 12 small rolls
Time- 15 minutes to prepare, 15 minutes to cook

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/2 Cups of self raising flour

-1/2 cup of water

Then whatever you want in your damper

-Vegemite

-Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 200 Degree.

Sift the self raising flour into a bowl, then add water slowly until it is a dough like constancy. Make sure its a little sticky as it will be put on a floured surface.

2. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough into an oval shape, then add what ever ingredients you want in the centre, I did one with just Vegemite and one with Vegemite and cheese!

 3. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 3cm thick slices, place at least 2 cm apart as they will rise and grow.

4. Put in the oven for 15minutes. Until lightly brown on top.

5. Then Serve! We put some butter on the plain Vegemite ones and that made them extra delicious. The Vegemite and Cheese ones were perfect by them selves, with a cup of tea or a coffee. Perfection.

We will be using this recipe again as we thought of some other ideas to put in the middle

- Jam served with whipped cream
- Cheese and Bacon
- Pesto with sun dried tomatoes
- Dried fruit
- Spinach and cheese (i'm going to try this one tonight)

Seriously its such an easy recipe and you could put anything you liked in the middle.
Its also a great way to celebrate Australia day, especially if you have people coming over.

T is for . . . Teething cookies

So we are using the Baby Led Weaning method when it comes to feeding little man. This means we give him food to feed himself rather than using puree. He absolutely loves is and isn't all that keen on puree. Although he will still eat it. Somedays we will give him some puree as well as something to feed himself.

Anyway I have been looking for things to feed him, to mix things up a little. So I read up on some teething cookies recipes and decided to put my own together and this is what I came up with.

Fruit Puree Teething Cookies.

Serves- Around 20 small cookies
Time- 10 minutes to prepare, 10-15minutes to bake

1/2 Cup of Plain flour

1/2 Cup of baby cereal

1/4 Cup of fruit puree

1/4 Cup of water

1 teaspoons of cooking oil

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, Sift the flour into a bowl and choose a baby cereal to add. I chose Farax 9+ months because it has oats and dried fruit in it already

2. Puree 1/4 cup of fruit (1/4 of a cup is the final puree, will need to use around 1/2 a cup of fruit) I used my favourite appliance ever, My Baby Bullet, but you can use anything and depending on how old your baby is, it doesn't have to be a paste. You could easily use whole fruits.

3. Mix your puree and oil through your dry ingredients.

4. Next mix through the water. I say use 1/4 of a cup but it will depend on what cereal you use. SO just add water until you get a dough like consistency. Of course this is where you get your hands dirty and roll the dough up until its a tube. Then cut into small pieces, around 1cm thick and into what ever shape you please.
Ethan likes stick shaped things the best.

5. Put baking paper in a tray, (I learned a trick from my SIL where you wet the baking paper first so it easily goes into the pan, its brilliant) and place your cookies in, remember because you used plain flour these biscuits wont rise and will not spread, so you can place them close together.

6. Bake! mine took 15 minutes to bake, but I watched them closely. As they are for babies, they only need to be slightly brown, if the cook and get dark brown, the ends become sharp and can be dangerous.

7. Enjoy, your very own baby tea party

Things to take note of~

- ALWAYS watch your baby when eating solid food as choking can happen! never takes your eyes off them.

-I know that adding oil may deter some people, I even tried a batch without it, but because there is no real binding ingredients, the oil make the cookies stick together and not crumble, which can be dangerous for babies.

These cookies are great. I cant wait to give one to Ethan when he wakes up. I had a little taste myself and they are quite nice!

A is for . . .Advent of beer!!

Can you believe that Tom has never had an advent calendar before? I decided today that I would change that! I scanned Pinterest to find some cool, homemade advent calendars that I could whip up in a day and I came across some really awesome beer ones and knew thats what I had to create!

So here it is! A seriously simple and easy advent calendar, perfect for that beer lover in your life!

What you need?

A slab of beer (or premix of your choice, 24 in total)
Some scrap paper
Sticky tape
Scissors
decorative items


Instructions

1) Everyone has scrap paper when it comes to wrapping christmas presents, so instead of throwing it away, why not keep it and use it for craft. Like this one and also my christmas letters. Anyway, take some scrap paper and cut into pieces large enough to fit over a beer lid.

2) Roughly tape the paper, white side down, to the top of the lid

3) Then create numbers out of the coloured side of the wrapping. Because I wanted to get it done fast I just free hand, cut out the numbers. But you could stencil them or even print them on the computer! Although i'm happy with my final result.

4) Then simply decorate the outside of the box however you please.

Done!

and he loved it.