Minecraft cupcakes

Made these cupcakes a few weeks ago for a friends son turning 13.  This is Creeper and Steve from the game Minecraft made out of cupcakes.  I love the way they turned out!

Half Training Week 1

Every year I set out to run my 2nd half marathon (the 1st was October 2008) and every year things come up as to why I can't train..... Pregnancies, nursing infants who don't take bottles, working, no baby-sitters, a husbands hectic schedule, not enough time in the day, mommy exhaustion... I could go on.  A whole lot of life has happened since 2008! 

Well this year has got to be different.  We started the year off with our one word, "intentional" and this year I will be intentional with my time and intentional with my training.  I am determined to complete that 2nd half marathon this year!  There is a race locally on May 18th, I haven't signed up yet, but plan to as soon as funds allow, because we all know that there's no better accountability to train than signing up and paying, right?  At least if you're as frugal as me, there's no way I would pay and not show up! 

I've looked up several training schedules, have found one I like and I'm trying to tweak it to my needs and to our schedule.  Where it gets hectic is that it's ridiculously cold out right now and so I am forced to do some running at the gym but can only get into the gym as Daniel's guest which means going when he's available, and his work schedule is a little different than most. Oh, and we also have 2 kids!   Trying to make it work though, and the days I can't get outside or to the gym, I'm subbing with some Turbo Fire or P90x. 

Here's how week 1 went:

Saturday January 18- Turbo Fire, Fire 30 class

Sunday January 19- Rest

Monday January 20- Ran 2.6 miles, Turbo Fire abs 10 class and stretch 10 class

Tuesday January 21- Rest

Wednesday January 22- Ran 3 miles and an ab work out with Daniel at the gym.

Thursday January 23- 1 hour of Zumba (1st time ever doing a Zumba class)

Friday January 24- Ran 2.5 miles, walked .5 mile

Saturday January 25- Rest

It isn't much, but it's a start! Excited to see how I feel next week, and hope to increase mileage a bit next week.  The hardest thing to combat right now is that, with it being so cold outside, my runs Wednesday and Friday were at the gym on the treadmill, and the treadmill is SO SO boring! Definitely looking forward to spring and warmer weather! 

Trying New Things

I love Pinterest, I really do, but my Pinterest browsing goes in phases. If you follow me on Pinterest you already know this.  There will be a week that I go crazy and pin all sorts of things, and then weeks of absolutely zero pins.  I mostly browse the children's section, home decor, DIY and food and drink.  I pin a ton of crafts and home decor stuff that I think is awesome but I will probably never get around to doing. I mean let's be honest, how many people actually do everything they pin?  But I can say this... Where I spend the most time is looking at recipes, and at least 90% of the recipes I pin, we try, at least once.

So a couple weeks ago when I was working on our meal plan for one of our big bi-monthly grocery trips, I felt like we were in a recipe slump and wanted to try some new stuff.  I set out to peruse Pinterest and find some new recipes, and they have not disappointed! I thought I'd share some with you in case you're in a recipe slump too. 

1. Crock Pot Philly Chicken Subs

I wish I could link you back to this recipe to give credit where credit is due, but alas this was one of those spam pins that links back to garbage.  (I hate when that happens.) But the recipe itself was included in the comments of the pin, so here it goes...

In the crockpot place-- sliced onion (I used one), sliced green pepper (I used 2), a couple dashes worsteschire sauce, 1/4 cup Italian dressing, 1/4 cup Texas Pete, and 1 pack chicken tenderloins. Cook on low 7-8 hours until chicken is done, shred a little and serve on a hoagie with cheese.  We used whole wheat hoagies that I sliced and toasted and used pepper jack cheese and added some mayo.  You could also serve with lettuce and tomato if you wanted.  And quick easy potato chips as the side for us. 

2. Crock Pot Dr. Pepper Roast 

Another easy peasy crock pot recipe, which is always helpful when you have little people.  You can find the recipe for the roast here at add a pinch. We served it up with green beans and roasted red potatoes.  It turned out really yummy, the only thing we felt was missing was gravy.

3. Shepherds Pie (Sweet potato)

Shepherds pie is already one of our regular "go to" menu items, but this is the 1st time we've done it with sweet potatoes, and I think it turned out really well and will be a keeper.  We always use ground turkey in our shepherds pie, and you can find the recipe here at diethood.

4. Crock Pot chicken noodle soup

Definitely a keeper recipe, ridiculously easy, crazy cheap, and yummy.  A perfect dinner when the NC snow rolled in.  You can find the recipehere at Inspire Dreamer. I followed it to the T. 

So for anyone weary to try new things or new recipes from the internet/Pinterest, this post is for you.  I've done the work for you, tried them and they all turned out well. And added bonus is that the kids loved them all too! If anyone has some other recipes for us to try, do share!