Well, isn't that Pinteresting?

As part of my New Year, New Me, I've decided to try something off Pinterest every week and blog the results. Basically, I stay at home with my kids and I need more people to talk to, you know, other than the ones that talk about pee pee and tooting at the dinner table, so....Congratulations!!!!

Basically, Pinterest is as addictive as pizza, ice cream and booze. In that order. And just like losing weight, I am bad about reading about things and talking about things, but NOT ACTUALLY DOING THOSE THINGS. So, I pin things like a madwoman and I do a few of them, but not nearly enough. And, some things on there are really really awesome.

Because, I am in a weight loss frame of mind, I'll try to mostly post recipes that are "skinny". I also have a million things pinned to clean my house and make it beautiful.

So......here's Pinteresting Wednesday Part 1

Scrumptious Cinnamon Pecan Granola
adapted from this recipe
4 cups rolled oats (I used quick oats)
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used Splenda brown sugar)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup applesauce
1tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins or craisins or dried blueberries

Preheat oven to 325. In a large bowl combine oats, flaxseed and pecans. Stir until combined.

In a small saucepan, combine honey, brown sugar, applesauce, salt, and cinnamon. Cook over low heat while stirring until the brown sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour the honey mixture in with the oat mixture and stir until the oats are coated. Add raisins, stir to incoorporate.

Put entire mixture on a large cookie sheet and spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring at least once. Granola should be browned, but watch for burning.Store up to 10 days in an air tight container. *

*10 days.....like we could make it 10 days before we ate it all.
This makes 10 servings, according to My Fitness Pal, one serving =258 calories

We like it with milk or over yogurt.

Fröhliche weihnachten und ein gutes neues jahr

Anybody who ever knew my beloved Grandpa Gene knew that saying this to him during the Christmas season (correctly!!!!) earns you a dollar.  It means Merry Christmas and a Good New Year. In German. I'm a gigantic German. Like, my great-great-grandparents came here from Germany, gave birth to Germans, who married Germans, who gave birth to my parents, who gave birth to me. Little fun facts on a Tuesday. Gosh I miss Grandpa Gene.

I'll backtrack to our Christmas in a day or two (or 10). I'm on a roll with blogging and I want to get my New Years Resolution post done so I can get to the business of breaking them. Or maybe not?

1. Lose the 40 pounds that I vowed to lose last September but decided to hang on to for a couple extra months.

2. Kiss and hug on my husband more. We've been in baby mode and survival mode for so long, its easy to forget where we started. We actually like each other.

3. Organize our lives. They are crazy and chaotic right now. I'm working so hard on this already. But, I am a naturally unorganized person with a hint of ADD, and but going back to work part time, plus adding 2 different therapies and at-home preschool, plus being a table leader at MOPS and remembering to check on and plan playdates for the 7 girls at my table have almost made me crazy. And I've taken on blogging for MOPS. And I'm helping organize a gigantic yard sale fundraiser in April. Crazyness. There have been days that I have taken Rylan to speech therapy at 8am, gone to Max's 2 year check up, gone to a playdate, gone to Rob's work to drop something off, back home and then back to town because we had some MOPS event. I overbook. Because I forget to write things down. So, a good organizer, keeping up with checkbook, writing down what I ate, make a schedule and stick to it. Planning ahead. That sort of thing.

4. Did I mention lose 40 pounds? 40? How bout 45. Christmas and Thanksgiving weren't very good to the scale. Getting a schedule and being accountable for myself will help me be accountable and schedule workouts and write down my eating.

5. Stop biting my nails. I'm better about biting my actual nails, but have become horrible about picking the skin around my nails. It looks awful, feel worse, and I'm scared my kids are going to do it too. Plus, I work at a hospital and then put my fingers in my mouth. GROSS

So, happy new year to all my favorite blog readers. I wish you all an amazing 2013.