egg whites & milk

who knew that mixing too much milk with your egg whites would result in this big thing of fluff. it seemed more like s science experiment, with all the bubbling it did. and luckily, my awesome circulon cookware is strong enough to survive my crazy attempts at cooking.

for the sake of eating healthy, i like to only eat the egg whites. when i eat a hard boiled egg, i eat the whites and throw away the yolk. it might sound wasteful but the yolk just contains a lot of fat and cholesterol that i don't want to have exercise off. and i don't really love the taste of the yolk so it just makes sense to do with out.

fun facts:

egg yolks:

• Calories: 55 cals
• Fat: 4.5 g
• Saturated Fat: 1.6g
• Cholesterol: 210 mg
• Protein: 2.7g

egg whites:

• Calories: 17 cals
• Fat: 0.1 g
• Saturated Fat: 0.0 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Protein: 5 g

the neglected : humble abode

our living room.
tv room.
toy room.
messy room.

i haven't put much thought into this room, as you can see. there is usually a layer of toys covering the ground and under that, a layer of crumbs. thanks to oliver. it's still the original paint color from when we moved in and right now i have no plan to paint. i need to figure out what to do with the big wall by the couch.. it needs... something, pictures, art, anything. and i would have the entertainment center centered but there is a cord that sticks out about 2 inches for the cable and requires the tv stand to then stick out even further and it's all so annoying.

i have better plans for that branch above the tv i just need to set 15 minutes aside to finish it. and i need to figure out what to put on the shelves... ugh. it's all unfinished. so this is the before photo and i will show the process of it getting done. also, do you like the slide in the room?! that was oliver's birthday present ;) we were planning on putting it up in his room but we'll eventually get it up there ;)

new diet.

i don't do well on diets. but i do do well with making healthy food choices ;) so i have decided to make ever better choices. i have recently decided to add in as many fruits and veggies as i can during our meals. and with our spinach plants producing well, spinach is usually always on our plate.

here i have healthified my usual sandwich like so:

-i have switched from my favorite, grandmother sycamore's wheat bread to sara lee's light wheat bread. it has 45 calories in each slice and less carbs wahoo! 
-i only smear a little bit of ranch lite on one side of my sandwich.
-so the sandwich isn't dry and to add more veggies i put on some cucumber slices.
-instead of chips, i have carrots.
-and for dessert... cherry tomatoes and oranges, they hit the sweet spot. 

Humble Abode// Family Room

For the past two months I have been debating whether or not I should paint the wall our picture gallery is on. I'm thinking of a darker, blue-grey. Just to help the photos pop more. I just need a little more pizazz to the room. I'm also on the lookout for a skinny table to put on the wall under the frames, like in my inspiration photo. Maybe new pillows and drapes as well... I wish I was an interior designer, then this wouldn't be so hard!

My main concern with the blue wall is that it will clash with my Christmas decor... ;)

 

 my inspiration..

take a walk.

So I have been neglected this blog so much. I have been busy with my photography, training for my 5k, and of course my family, including traveling to Texas. But we are back and have many projects to work on. So I now will have some stuff to post. Hooray! I plan on also tracking my training progress for my new goal... a 10k! woot woot!

For today I just thought I would share something we really enjoy since we have had such nice weather lately! Our boys LOVE going for walks in their wagon. Best Christmas present from their Gaga by far!

Hello Mr. Bright Eyes!

love the dirt on his cheek. it's a sign of a fun day. ;)

shirt: GAP jeans: GAP shoes: ROSS

LOL. I had to include the first pic because I thought it was really funny. I am explaining to Brett how to work the camera. Even though he knows already. ;)

I am such a T-shirt and jeans kind of girl. I have a ton of plain t's. Though I thought this T was a little fancier since it has rolled cuffs. I know.. I'm easily impressed.

Dining area dilemma

To mix or not to... that is the question.

We ended up selling our beautiful dining set we've had since we got married and getting another one. I loved the one we had because it was unique and charming, but it was too big for our small space. We opted to go with a round table which also has an additional leaf if we want to make it larger at some point. Of course I am a die hard white furniture fan so that was what I was on the search for. We sold our old dining room set on KSL for the same price we got the new one, also from KSL.

The new set we got only came with 3 chairs but I can easily go buy the same chair to have a set of 4. I'm currently debating whether I want it all to match or if I want to mix it up, and get different chairs for the table.
 

Before: previous owner's

 Progress 1:

 

Progress 2:

 

 Inspiration:

 *SF Girl By Bay

 *SF Girl By Bay

*House Tweaking

2 in 1

As I mentioned before I was wanting to put up a map and chalkboard in the boys rooms. When I went to Downeast Outlet the other day I spotted this beauty on their wall. I was so stoked! It was a chalkboard in teh shape of the the United States! SCORE!

I love that it comes off easily so you can reapply it and move it all you want! It came with some other stickers but we just used some of the airplane ones. Oliver loves it.

Brett's cartoon face and Oliver's grass?