One year ago yesterday I married my best friend on a gorgeous and warm fall day in southern Minnesota.  Everything about the wedding day turned out how I imagined it.  We celebrated most of the weekend, visiting an apple orchard and winery on Saturday and going out for a nice dinner last night.  My husband Tom surprised me in my classroom at school by bringing me flowers.  He even brought chocolate chip cookies for the kids!  It was the sweetest gesture!  Over dinner, he surprised me with a Beleek clock that is being shipped from Ireland.  Apparently, the new tradition for first year anniversaries is to give a clock.  While this may have seemed strange to most couples, Tom saw it as the perfect opportunity to make our first anniversary special by using the clock as a reminder that someday we will visit Ireland:)  Beleek China is very special to my family since we are very Irish.  It was the perfect gift and I am so excited to see it when it arrives!

December 2011 vs. July 2009

Favorite Blogs and Recipes

What has helped me a great deal on my weight loss journey has been reading other blogs.  The first one I ever visited was Keeping Up With Katie, which was shown to me by my now husband who had read about it in a Yahoo article.  I love reading Katie's posts because she lost 50 pounds on Weight Watchers and is so relatable.  She has great ideas of food and exercise and never pretends being healthy is easy.  Through her, I found my other favorite blogger, Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers.  Julie blogs 3 times a day and I find her to be interesting and funny.  She lives in Florida and often has seafood which I am not a fan of, however I share her love of peanut butter.  Another blogger, Andie, is just downright inspirational.

My favorite spot to check out recipes is How Sweet It Is.  My most successful dinners have come from this site!  I have included some favorite recipes below!

Awesome pasta dish you can try with beef or chicken! Click here!

Pizza!  I add spinach to make it even better! Click here!

Amazing pancakes!

I am currently trying to eat these foods regularly because they have longer staying power so I won't graze for snacks immediately after eating....spinach, greek yogurt, roasted vegetables (spinach, peppers, zucchini are faves),  and oatmeal.  By the way, adding spinach leaves to a blueberry smoothie is an amazing combo!

I may be a tad bit obsessed with food.  Food and coffee:)

Revised Food Pyramid

If I could choose what the food pyramid looked like, I would turn the following favorite snacks/foods into actual food groups.  This is based on how often I crave and/or consume them.

1.  Guacamole.  I have perfected homemade guac and made it once a week through the summer.  I still get the urge to make it through the winter, but it's more fun to buy the veggies at the farmer's market and get a better taste at that time of year.  I will post the recipe later.   Love it!

2.  Pirate's Booty popcorn.  I don't even remember when I first discovered this but I am fairly certain I bought a bag of it at Target when I saw it on sale and have been hooked on it since.  It is white cheddar which is my favorite flavor in itself for popcorn.  It is also the fluffy popcorn with no kernels.  If I have a bag in my pantry, it's gone within 2 days.  Last night, I discovered a huge bag at Sam's Club at a better price.  We will see how long that lasts!  I like that it's gluten free and no trans fat but it's still not the healthiest snack.  Especially when I eat 3 servings in a sitting!

3.  Laughing cow light swiss cheese wedges with Kashi Pita crackers (with sea salt).  Amazing duo!!  I have this for lunch almost every day as my carb/cheese/salt/crunch craving.  Super good!  I would rather have these than chips any day which works out great because it is much healthier.  I count out 11 crackers each time (1 serving) and eat them with the wedge.  Sooo good, gotta try it!

4.  Skippy Natural Super Chunk peanut butter with Quaker High Fiber brown sugar and cinnamon oatmeal.  Make the oatmeal, then drop in 1 tablespoon of the p.b., and add in sliced banana.   Amazing!  Tastes like oatmeal cookie dough.  If someone could recommend a "healthier" peanut butter that tastes just as good and has the crunch peanuts in it, let me know please! I usually eat this oatmeal creation for breakfast 4 days a week.

5.  For the citrus crave, I like cuties.  Yum!  For some reason, they are super good right now!!  I usually eat 1 or 2 at lunch every day.  Also, Florida's Natural organic fruit nuggets are amazing!  Tastes like candy, low calorie, and so sweet and yummy!

Those are some of my favorite foods right now and they are always stocked in our kitchen!  What are some of your favorite go-to snacks that are a constant presence for you?