Author Archives: Molly

Good Eats

I’m one of those people who would like to look in other people’s shopping carts at the store but I hold myself back so that I’m not too rude. I can get some good ideas from snooping though and that I would give you a virtual look into my weekend groceries.

I stopped in at Trader Joe’s over the weekend. Usually I look at a couple of my staple grocery stores ads to see what is on sale for the week and start to menu plan. I really did not have my stuff together before Saturday but when I had the opportunity to go to the store I thought I had better grab it planned or not. This trip was not as planned out, but I think planning on going heavy on produce is a good strategy in our house.

I always start with the fruits and veggies section of a store so that I give good cart real estate to the good stuff. The winners: a couple of bags of romaine, baby spinach, kale, broccoli slaw, carrots, avocados, snap peas, tri-color peppers, cherry tomatoes, oranges and frozen peas.

Followed by bananas, Greek yogurt, feta cheese, shredded mixed cheese, pizza dough, horseradish, black beans, pasta sauce, a few soups, a couple of boxes of crackers and chicken sausage.

Followed up with dates for some baking next week, two frozen entrees (Indian and Mexican), pecans, granola bars, and TJ’s nutella.

I stopped at another store for a standing rib roast (Matt’s request for his birthday dinner). The TJ’s trip set me back about $120. As I look at the pictures I can see a lot of waste in the packaging, and can see ways that I could save money by getting less convenience food (packaged lettuce, pre-cut veggies). But all in all I was happy to have so much beautiful produce that will help fuel our week.

Interesting combination of the trip? Greek yogurt with prepared horseradish is delicious! It was so good with the standing rib roast and I could see it being a great dip for veggies.

Jack thought Free State was the most interesting find of the trip.

Any Trader Joe’s favorites I need to add to my next trip?

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No Fooling

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Jack’s loving daddy. Matt’s mom put together some comparisons of Matt to Jack at roughly the same age.

Matt was a cute enough baby, but turned into one of the most handsome men I have seen in person (in my humble opinion). It will be so fun to see what our little guy will look like when he grows up.

Today’s workout was inspired by Matt’s first day of being 31 and saying goodbye to 30.

Dirty Thirty

For time:
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Jumping pull-ups
30 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 30 steps
30 Knees to elbows
30 Push press, 45 pounds
30 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
30 Burpees
30 Double unders

This is a Crossfit workout that is super tough but so much fun. Check out Crossfit’s website if you’re unfamiliar with any of the workouts.

Now off to enjoy a skillet cookie with the birthday boy. What’s your ideal birthday dessert?

Happy Easter!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter with those you love. Mine started with early Easter Mass. Jack was up in plenty of time to eat and get to church by 7:30 (wow! Have our weekends changed). We included him in our Easter tradition of scones and chai after church, and then took lots of pictures after we got home.

(Thank you for Peter Rabbit, Grandma Laura!)

And check out Jack’s two bottom teeth!

We were a little too busy this year to get distracted with chocolate bunnies. But if you had an indulgent day I hope you savored every bite and have plans to get back to it tomorrow. Have a great rest of the weekend!

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Friday Favorites

I like hearing about new products that are fun or that make life a little easier. I thought I would share a few of my favorite things with you as we head into the weekend. (No worries – I was not in any way compensated to write about these products. These are just my honest opinions.)

I love my Aerolatte milk frother. Coffee at home is a little more special with frothed milk. Yum! I hoped I would get my $20 use out of this and definitely have. You can froth any kind of “milk”(cow’s, almond, soy, etc.) and get great results. I bought mine at Crate and Barrel but it is available in a couple of different stores.frother
I know nursing mommies often have a love/hate relationship with a breast pump. I can’t imagine what I would have done without this beauty. I would consider this a fitness “must” for any mom. Early on this pump enabled me the freedom to go for a run before Jack woke up. No way to attempt a run whilst full of milk. (sorry if that is TMI) And now that I am back at work I am so thankful that I can still provide milk for Jack during the work day and that we can resume our normal routine when I’m home with him. This double pump is efficient and really easy to use. Full disclosure: Some of you may remember that I interned with Medela in college. Because of my experience there in seeing the wonderful innovation and hearing product reviews I knew I had to have this pump on my baby registry. Off topic, imagine having “breast pump” on your engineering resume…and think about the typical engineer demographic. Sometimes those conversations started a little awkwardly.
Bobbi Brown Beauty Balm. I go through phases were I am really into beauty products and times where that area takes back seat. I (strangely) have longer mornings now but am not really willing to cut into my giggle, singing and picture time with my little ham. I love that this product is a moisturizer, sunscreen, and foundation all in one. I love the result AND it saves valuable time for my mornings. (For reference I use the “fair.”)
And my favorite baby (not available in stores)

Any products you’re loving lately? Have a great weekend!

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Midweek Break

Just a quick stop in to say hi. Wonderful start to the day here! Jack is back to his happy self now that the second tooth has pretty much broken through. So I was well-rested headed into spin this morning and got a great workout. Right before class my friend, Emily, lovingly bullied me into a 5 minute plank. Love friends who push you!

And to help your day get off to a good start I have to share some quick videos of Jack from this weekend. He thinks he is playing a game when I take his onesie off and giggles as he tries to pinch his arms to his side. Matt will come to Jack’s nursery and ask if I’m changing a onesie again…and I give a huge smile and an unapologetic yes.

And the second is Matt with Jack…our sweet little boy is an equal opportunity laugher.

I hope your day is full of smiles too. Anything making you laugh lately?

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Monday Motivation

Well, hello Monday. We meet again.

I think Jack understood the Illini loss even though he was asleep for the game. His evening wake-ups were not cheerful. Maybe it messed up his brackets? Wisconsin’s loss messed with my final four picks. Darn Badgers! So when I was planning my Monday morning workout and saw “The Badger” I knew it was a good chance for redemption.

The Badger

3 Rounds for time:

30 65 lb squat clean

30 Pull-ups

Run 800m

This workout was modified due to Mr. Sleepy-pants.

I waited around for him to wake up to feed before heading out to the gym. By the time I got to the gym I had enough time to do a bit of stretching, jump rope warm up and then performed as many reps of Badger as possible in 30 minutes. I wish I could say that I can do an unassisted pull-up but these were all performed as jumping pull-ups. And I was certainly not speedy on the squat cleans. But I think I owned those 800’s. I made it through 2 complete rounds and 10 squat cleans before I had to head home. My arms and legs have been getting progressively more tired throughout the day.

I hope your week is off to a great start!

It’s Madness!

We are pretty excited for March Madness around our house. Matt and I are working on brainwashing encouraging the new little Illinois fan. Go Illini!

Notice Jack turning his head to watch the game. I think we already have a basketball fan. We were lucky enough to watch the Friday afternoon game with some college friends and their adorable kids who just moved to Kansas City from Atlanta. Big change from the days in Orange Krush or from wild watches at Murphy’s but I love where life is going.

I taught two “later” spin classes over the weekend – 7am on Friday at 7:45am on Saturday at City Gym. I love getting to start the day with a great group of people, and I appreciate not starting the day super early with the newest madness at our house. Jack has his first tooth! I was just sharing his 3 Month Update, so how does this little guy already have a tooth (bottom front)?? “What to Expect the First Year” says to expect the first tooth around the 7^th month but that some early babies might get their little pearly whites as “early as two or three months .”

I guess this means we will start brushing his little teeth soon. When do you start flossing a baby’s teeth?

Join me for a slight detour: committing to regularly flossing was one of the best New Year’s resolutions I have ever made. I decided about three years ago that flossing was probably one of the easiest ways I could impact my health. Small time investment for huge payoff. Cavities are ugly and expensive! Consider this your friendly reminder to get back into the routine if you aren’t.

Back to more madness after a cute baby picture:

We got more snow this weekend! Augh! It was 80 last Friday and now we are back to shoveling snow.

My tournament picks are wounded but my winner pick is still in (Thanks, Dad!). Who do you have winning the NCAA tourney this year?

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Just Another Manic Monday

Are you one of those people who loves Mondays? If you answered yes, then I think you are lying. Is anyone a Monday person?

Luckily I had a great workout ready to go to start my Monday. I warmed up on the ~~dreadmill~~ treadmill and then got to work on this awesome AMRAP workout I borrowed from Jen at Peanut Butter Runner. Great variety to keep my interest on an ADD Monday morning. Good tunes help too.

And here’s a quick snapshot of my roasted veggie salad I mentioned in yesterday’s post. (Let’s hope my officemate doesn’t think I’m too weird for taking pictures of my lunch) Roasted beets, sweet potatoes and onions with black beans and wild rice on top of spinach. Delicious! I tend to do a lot of repeats for lunches during the week, so I will be having this same exact combo for the next two days. I do a lot of salads for lunch and am always looking for some good variations. Any salad addition recommendations for next week?

Hope your Monday was happy and productive! One day closer to the weekend!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Mine was full of friends and food. Oh, yeah. And this little guy.

(Thanks for the cool shirt from Ireland, Auntie Tina!)

I like sitting down on Sundays to do some meal planning and workout planning for the weekend. Today’s meal prep included making plenty of steel cut oats to reheat throughout the week, roasting beets and sweet potatoes to add to salads, and making a beef goulash for Matt’s lunches. Doing some of this prep givse me a head start to making healthy options throughout the week. (As an aside, steel cut oats are supposedly a great food for mama milk production so I have been trying to have oats for my daily breakfast.)

Planning my workouts on Sunday makes me think about getting a good variety of exercises and makes me more efficient throughout the week. If you’re in the Kansas City area and planning your workouts for the week I’m subbing spin on Friday 7am and teaching my regular every other Saturday 7:45am spin class, both at City Gym.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that your week gets off to a great start. If you’re looking for some early week inspiration I finally updated the “Favorites” tab with some of my favorite blogs and resources. Enjoy!

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Accountability

This morning on my drive home from the gym I started thinking about accountability. There is something so motivating about showing up to a class where you see some of the same faces week in and week out. I notice when one of the “regulars” isn’t there, and feel like the same happens if I’m missing.

I was talking with a friend last week about how much we miss meeting up in the mornings to workout. I stopped going to Crossfit right before getting pregnant with Jack and she has continued to go (& is amazingly strong!). In all of our time working out together I don’t think we ever bailed on one another and sometimes it was the best part of my day. (Off topic: Are any of you watching Crossfit Games on ESPN? Crazy strong people!)

Luckily I have an awesome group of runner friends that love our morning meetups. Now that I’m starting to get my pace back up I’m running with the gang again. There are many times I’d rather hit snooze, but knowing my friends are expecting me is great accountability. I know just how lucky I am to have these people in my life. But I have also had times in my life when I haven’t had people physically near me for workout buddies, and would have loved to have had some extra incentive.

I love Wednesdays because although half of the week is over, you still have the second half to accomplish your goals. Reflecting on my week I am very happy with my fitness efforts this week, and have recommitted to achieving my remaining goals through the end of the week…Back to the thought about not having workout buddies nearby or just wanting some extra accountability. Feel free to add a comment about your fitness (or other) goals for the rest of the week for accountability. We can check back in with each other at the end of the week. I’ll go first: I’m planning to meet up with my runner girls tomorrow morning, a sculpt fusion class Friday, and some strength training on Saturday. I hope you have a great second half of the week!

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