Zucchini Bread and Muffins

I've been trying a bunch of different zucchini bread recipes lately.

I got some monster zucchinis from a guy at work.

He had planted pumpkins at the same time and he swears they got cross pollinated with them!

I think he might be right because I had one for awhile and it started to turn a bit orange.

 

Funny! They taste just like zucchini though, so they have worked great for bread and muffins and everything else!

So far my favorite is this Lemon Zucchini Recipe that I made into muffins. (241 calories each)

I'm not a huge lemon fan but the frosting on these makes them to die for. SO GOOD!  

The frosted bread here was also excellent.

That's a Carrot Zucchini Apple Bread. The recipe made 2 loaves so I took one to work with me. 

It was devoured! (245 calories for 1/12th the recipe)

This is an Orange Zucchini Bread recipe that I made into muffins. Generally you can take a bread recipe and then put it into muffin tins and cook it about 20 minutes and they are done. It's nice too if you want to make something but don't want to use the oven for a whole hours. I didn't add any nuts to this one so that it would be lower calorie. It's also a "lightened up" recipe to start with. The orange flavor is pretty subtle. They are really good! (160 calories each)

This was my first zucchini muffin recipe I made way back. I still really like it. 

Bisquick Zucchini Muffins (I make mine minus the actual Bisquick) (254 calories each)

Zucchini Spice Bread came out super fluffy and moist. Delicious. (246 calories each)

 

 

 Do you have a favorite Zucchini bread recipe?

Movie Date

After my race on Saturday I laid around for a bit and then took my little cousin to the movies. I had told his mom I'd take him for a bit so we could play and she could have a little break. I decided I'd take him to the movies since I wasn't quite sure what else to do with a 3 1/2 year old boy. It was way too hot to go to the park or anything outside (over 100). Trevor didn't want to go with me but Scott decided he'd tag along.

Which, I'm really glad he went because I forgot how busy a 3 1/2 year old is lol.

So I took him to see Planes: Fire Rescue.

I haven't watched a Disney movie in forever and I can't even tell you the last kid's movie I saw in the theater without nodding off. The movie started at 4:35, which means really that the movie started at 5:01 (I checked when it actually started). So that's 26 minutes of sitting there before the movie even started. Which, is also like eternity for a little one.

We had got popcorn even though he said he "didn't like popcorn". Then he ate like half the bag lol. I quickly realized "I don't like it" is just standard answer for every kind of food.

Right after the movie started he told me he "didn't like this movie". I told him sorry but we paid for it so we have to watch itl. The whole movie was pretty lame and way above his head, I'm sure. I can't believe Disney makes such crap now. He did get pretty excited when the plane was actually flying in the movie and crashing. He yelled out a few things and people laughed in the audience.

After the movie was over we walked out to check out the fountain. It was so bright outside his little light colored eyes were dying.

This fountain is in the middle of a round about. It's a cool fountain but kind of hard to enjoy it when you're worried a kid is going to run out and get ran over ;) Plus, garbage in there. Let's trash everything people.

He didn't want to go home yet so we brought him to my house. Trevor played with him the whole time and they got along great. I took him home around nine even though he "didn't want to go home".

Little kids are a kick but it's nice just having them to "visit". 

Bad Bass Kick My Ass Trail Run

Well I jumped back into crazy town yesterday.



I had signed up for my July race kind of late, which left me with not very many races to choose from in the area.  I'm sure you have all figured out that I have not been running as much lately. I kind of fell off the running trail into the couch after my last half marathon and I've been struggling to get out of the cushions every since.

I decided a couple weeks ago I'd just go back and start over the couch to 5k. Which, after Week 1 Day 1 I decided I could skip ahead a bit. I went to Week 5 day 1 the next time and then to Week 6, and that is where I am fitting in. Some running with some breaks for walking.

So I signed up for this trail run. It was about an hour away with traffic so I decided I'd sign up for the 10k because why would I want to waste the gas to drive that far for a 5k? Some logic eh? If I'm going to kill myself I better kill myself enough that it's worth the money.

I actually didn't even drive myself. I had found a local running "group" on Facebook and I had posted on there asking if anyone wanted to car pool and one girl answered so I drove with a complete stranger. She was cool though and her (21 year old) son came too, although he didn't race.

I was a bit intimidated by her when I first saw her because she weighs MAYBE 100 pounds. She started running when her son went to college so she had something to do with herself. She doesn't even know what her pace is because she doesn't run with anything and even wore her daughter's old tennis shoes until just recently. But then she told me how she did in the last couple races she ran, and she's super fast. Like a 25 minute 5k or something like that. I'm in awe of people who can just get out there and be awesome like that.

So anyhow, the race was put on by Brazen Racing, who always does an awesome job. Their races cost a bit more but they are so worth it! Totally organized and they always have a big spread of snacks when you're done. Plus they have awesome medals for all the race distances.

This race was called the Bad Bass and it was at Lake Chabot, which I've never been to before.

I got in line for the 10k race and waited for the start. My strategy this time? Don't die.

The first part of the race wasn't too bad. I was thinking to myself, wow is it going to be on this paved path the whole time? I could totally do this!

But then, then the paved path stopped. It went to the dirt and then STRAIGHT UP.

And it wasn't just like one hill. It was like over a mile of that. I pretty much walked it the rest of the way to the top. I even stopped and just stood there a couple times to catch my breath. 

At least it was pretty though. A little smoggy out there but pretty. This was just a tiny bit down from the top.

I told myself I'd just run down the hill, which I did partially. After seeing a girl in front of me roll her ankle in some of the water ruts I decided that I should probably be careful. There was a young boy  that kept leap frogging with me and he'd just barrel down the hills and I kept thinking how nice it is when you are little and don't worry about hurting yourself.

Instead I was calculating how much an ambulance ride to the hospital would cost if I broke my leg lol. Eventually I got to the paved part and I was like woohoo it's easy from here but then it kept going up hill again. Hmm maybe that's why that part wasn't too hard on the way out lol.

I kept feeling bad that the girl I rode with was waiting for me. She had passed me going back long before I got to the top of the hill so I knew she was waiting at least half an hour for me.

When I was done she came up to me and was super nice though. She was like "well those hills were unexpected" ha! Oh by the way that was her first 10k and first trail run. I just looked up her time and she finished in 1:01 and came in 4th in her age group.

I on the other hand came in at 1:34:17, 22nd out of 29 in my age group.

I was glad I didn't have to drive because I was kind of beat!

Later after I got home I was looking at the elevation map on my Runkeeper. Yep I didn't exaggerate that it was uphill lol. Look how pretty the map looks though, all green!

I actually wouldn't mind coming back here and running on the trail again. I know I'm nuts but it was so pretty! It would be nice to just take my time (ha) and be able to stop and enjoy all the pretty sights. There was a bunch of times I was like "Oh I should take a picture of that" but didn't. 

I wouldn't mind riding bikes on the paved part too. I don't really like going off road with the bike (that whole ambulance ride thing) but the paved part wouldn't be bad. 

Next up is the Color The Skies Run in Ripon. Nice and flat and only a 5k!

It's The Weekend woohoo

Good morning! My legs feels like they're on fire from the cat (Lucy) doing a burn out on them this morning. Nothing says GET OUT OF BED like 20 claws poking you in the legs. 

In her defense she was running from Snookie. It's the morning game of cat tease dog, dog chase and bark at cat. 

Last night after dinner I went over to my friend Traci's dock to hang out. My mom and dad came over too and then some other neighbors came by on their golf cart and another gal in her car behind them. Next thing we knew it was like a party. Lots of fun!

The sunset wasn't too exciting. I think maybe because it was a little windy. 

Not too long after it went down we moved down the street to Traci's porch and hung out there until 11 something. Not too shabby of a way to start the weekend. 

Well, minus the cat scratches.

Date Night

Scott and I went on a date night last night, since the kids aren't here and all. We went out to sushi. I didn't take any pictures because I think I've ate it all now. Well not ALL I don't really care for the just a piece of fish by itself stuff but I think we've had almost all the rolls now.  I ordered the appetizer sampler which was kind of a fat girl mistake because it's all fried. Delicious, but fried. We also had two rolls and ate almost all of it.

When we were done we looked to see if there were any movies playing and Sex Tape was playing at 8. It was 8:07 but we were right next door and they have 20 minutes of previews at the movies now so decided to go see it. When we got in the previews were STILL playing so we didn't miss anything.

I just have to say, this is the funniest movie I have seen in A LONG time. Pretty much hilarious! Everyone was still laughing when the movie was over and we laughed and threw the one liners around all the way home.

My mom is supposed to bring my kids home tonight. Not sure if that's before or after dinner so I guess I'll cook up this chicken I took out just in case.

Tomorrow I have to take my car in to get it fixed for a recall. I think Scott's going to follow me over there since they said it will take 3 1/2 hours, which probably means 6 hours. I think we are going to work on Trevor's room. We had originally put in pocket doors for the kids rooms. We've already replace Melissa's door with a regular door because when it was Jessica's room she slammed it so many times it kept falling off the track. I want to get different door knobs for the doors too so the dogs will stop opening all the bedroom doors when we don't want them in there.

Doesn't that sound like an exciting weekend? If I'm lucky maybe I'll do some painting in there but not sure if I'll get to that part or not. Still need to fill in the holes in the walls..

Random Ranting

ugh life sucks! I guess we should all be happy we are alive right? We could be like the poor woman who went to the bank down the street from where my mom lives yesterday. She went to the bank with her twelve year old daughter in tow and then ended up being taken hostage in a bank robbery and killed two hours later. Right down the street from where all my family lives and where I grew up.

So close to home and so scary.

I'm thinking I just don't need to go to the bank anymore. I've got online banking, direct deposit and if I need cash I can get cash back at Target or the grocery store. Yep, no reason to go to the bank.

Did you hear about that Malaysia Airlines plane getting shot down in Russia? Yeah, remind me never to fly Malaysia Air. I'm pretty sure they are either going to go out of business or have to change their name now.

Melissa and Trevor are at my mom's house for a couple days to have fun with Grandma. Trevor keeps texting me to buy him some Ocarina toy. I finally told him I'm not buying it and to stop asking for it. Sheesh, kid isn't even here and he's pressuring me into buying him shit.

Little does he know I cleaned out his bedroom yesterday and today I took about 10 bags of stuff to the hospice thrift shop. What's weird is it was all CRAP. Hopefully he doesn't miss that crap too much when he gets home.

I stopped on the way home and bought some Spackle so I can fill in some of the holes in his room. There is one next to his bed that looks like it might be halfway to China. I swear I don't know why my kids are so destructive. I'm starting to think I just need to be mean. Not meaner, just MEAN.

I was also looking at primer and paint. The bottom half of the wall is a dark blue and I think I'm going to need to use a primer to paint over that (in something more neutral). I wanted to ask someone's opinion that worked at Home Depot in the paint department but there was no one working there.

I picked a little brochure to look at, guess I can figure it out on my own.

I also could have just checked myself out at the self check out and done my whole shopping trip at their store without talking to someone but yeah, I hate those things.

Pretty soon places won't even have employees and we'll just go in and leave our money and no one will have a job.

Well since we have no kids tonight and Scott is actually coming home on the train so should be here before 8 pm like he was last night we are going to go out to sushi.

I guess I should go clean something or go fill some holes or something.

Camping!

Wow it's been almost a whole week since I last blogged. I'm becoming quite the sporadic poster. I need to work on that a bit I think!

Last week was spent trying to get my shit together with my eating and exercising. Then we went camping and I ate a shit ton of crap. It all balances out in the end right?

Scott didn't want to take the truck so we took the 2 cars, which have fold down seats and are wagon-like so it worked out just fine. Trevor and Snookie rode with him and Rusty and Melissa rode with me. I now have enough dog hair in my car to make a 3rd dog, but I think he was pretty excited to go for a ride.

Snookie wasn't too sad either.

We only stopped three times on the way, once to get gas & ice right after we left, right before ranger station in Bear Valley because my bladder was going to give out and then just a bit farther down the road at the ranger station to get a campfire permit. 

When we stopped in Bear Valley Melissa found these HUGE dandelion looking things. When she blew them it was like Bugs Life with them floating all around. Pretty cool.

We were pretty excited when we got up to Hermit Valley and saw that our original favorite site was free! Up where we go it's free to camp, you just have to get there first. It was nice that we got there when it was still light out so we could take our time unpacking things and setting up the tents. 

The kids each had their own and so Scott and I had our own. Or so we thought until it got dark and Trevor changed his mind and climbed into ours.

For dinner the first night we had hot dogs and brats. I tried to come up with stuff that would be easier to cook this time. We made them over the campfire, which was super nice!

and then we had smores for dessert of course. Scott kept saying we needed to wait until it was dark but I didn't. I had stayed up until 2 am the night before getting everything ready to go camping and I was totally exhausted. Yes that's a Reese's s'more. It tasted just as heavenly as it looks.

I pretty much begged off and went to bed after it got dark. 

The next morning we had breakfast burritos. Scott did all the cooking while we were camping it was great!

We were still eating breakfast when the first of the Death Ride riders started coming down the mountain. Part of the reason we went camping this weekend was so that we could watch the race. Scott knew two guys that were riding it (they ride the train with him). 

We pulled our chairs up closer to the road and watched and waved. 

When it was over Scott and I rode bikes down to the bathroom (downhill) and back (uphill) for .7 miles each way. That was enough for me.

For lunch we had sandwiches and then we took a little walk back to the "beach" to play for awhile.

I pretty much took over that there folding chair and laid under the umbrella while we were there. Trevor asked me why I wasn't playing. I said to me that was my version of play lol. 

When we came back we played a few rounds of rummy and then Scott made us dinner, hamburgers and Italian sausage, followed by you guessed it, more s'mores!

Sunday we got up and had pancakes and bacon. Sounds like all we did on our trip was eat and you're right!

It's just so beautiful there. Even if you aren't doing much it's nice to just sit and relax and enjoy the area. Although I've decided that camping would be a lot more fun if there were no bugs or dirt. 

We were on the road by 11:30 and back to 100 degree temps. We stopped in Angels Camp for lunch, well kind of , we went through the drive thru since we had the dogs but it took so long I had to turn off my AC since it had started to just blow hot air. Ridiculous. 

This is my least favorite part of the drive through Copperopolis. it's just so blah. Well except the clouds were kind of cool. 

Once we got home I hit the couch until it was my turn for a shower. Ahhh the best part of coming home.

If it didn't take so long to get there and back I'd go again this weekend. Well, if my bug bites go away by then ;)

4th Of July

Finally an update on the 4th! I swear Trevor's like an internet addict now. He's always hogging the computer. Now he's also into watching Dr. Who on Netflix though so he's giving You Tube a break for a few minutes.

We went over to my brother Louie's house for the 4th of July. We did some swimming, some snacking, and lots of baby holding. I only got puked on once.

Melissa & Vincent

Me & Vincent

Me & Emma

Scott & Emma

Feeding time (Scott's brother Howard, Michele, Ava & the twins)

The guys playing some kind of intense basketball game

Melissa and her fan club (Ava & Adrian)

Mom  & Tinkerbell who wants to love me but can't quite bring herself to (the dog not my mom)

We left around 8 and went to watch the fireworks show in Manteca. That is the first time I've EVER in my entire life paid to watch fireworks. Guess what? They weren't much better than the free ones. 

my best picture lol

Manteca has their show at Big League Dreams which is the baseball stadium where Scott and Jessica have both played at before. The parking lot was full so we ended up parking across the street in the shopping center. WHICH only took us about an hour to get out of post fireworks show. 

Right before the fireworks started Trevor went to get a churro and then missed like half the fireworks. He was more into the churro than the show I think. 

This is such a weird time in our lives when the kids are getting to big to enjoy things like this but then you think you should still do them for the tradition part of it.

Meal Planning

I'm working on my grocery list and menu for the next few days! Trying to "be good". We are going camping next weekend if everything goes as planned so I'll work on that menu later. 

I love going through Pinterest to find good recipes to try! Cooking is so much more fun if you are trying something new and not just eating the same old crap every day. Plus I've found that when I do this, make a menu and then a shopping list with everything I need on the menu, I actually do really well with my healthy eating. You don't need to go get chicken strips and fries from the corner store if you have a delicious meal planned.

Here's what I've got on my "menu"

I'm going to give this a try. Skinnytaste Veggie Ham Egg & Cheese Bake

The "egg cups" kind of gross me out but maybe this one will be better. I figure I can portion it out and reheat in the morning right?

This looks like a nice twist on the Greek Salad. Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad 

and this Mexican Chopped Salad just looks delicious

I figure I can take some of one of those and have some of these Spicy Turkey Burgers for lunch

or some of this Zucchini Lasagna

For dinners I have these

Szechuan Chicken Stir Fry

Italian Chicken, Mushroom and Zucchini Skillet

Chicken and Spinach Parmesan

and the Naked Turkey Bruschetta Burger

Now to put some clothes on and go to the grocery store!