I tried a new recipe today.  I'm not sure how healthy it is, but I did get it from eatingwell.com so I am going to count it for my bonus points.  I made muffins and they were pretty good, but I think I baked them a little too long.

Spiced Apple Cider Muffins

Streusel
2 tablespoons packed light  brown sugar
4 teaspoons whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts (optional) I didn't use them

Muffins
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 large egg
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup apple butter, such as Smucker's
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup apple cider
1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/4 cup canola oil (one person used apple sauce instead of oil)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. To prepare streusel: Mix brown sugar, whole-wheat flour, and cinnamom in a small bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in walnuts, if using.
3. To prepare muffins: whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.
4. Whisk egg and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth.  Whisk in apple butter, syrup, cider, yogurt, and oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they'll be quite full). Sprinkle with the streusel.
5. Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Fish & Chips

So, It's not so much a "new" recipe, but I tried something I've never had before.  This is what happens when I send Ty to the grocery store.  He came home with catfish.  I've tried very few fish in my life, and never catfish, but I gave it a try.  All I did was fry them in butter and salt & pepper in a pan(hence, not a "new" recipe)  And I quite enjoyed them.  I also made healthy fries in the oven.  I sprayed a cookie sheep.  Sprinkled Tony Chacheres, and placed my potatoes on that I had cut into halves, and then quarters, I even left the skins on!  Then I sprayed them on top with cooking spray and more seasoning and baked them at 425 for 20 mins or so.  I also added some green beans to the meal to add a little color and veggie.  Anyway, it was quite good and I'm even thinking about finishing off the rest of the fish for lunch.  And, my kids liked it too. Bonus!

ps Amy this is the website with simplified children's songs I was talking about
http://www.laytonmusic.com/primary.htm/Simplified%20Primary%20Songs/Simplified_Primary_Songs.htm  let me know if this works.  I think it helps a lot that they can play songs they hear from primary!  I love it! Enjoy!

Ok, so I am still alive and I have doing this diet I promise. I am just slow and crazy. So here are my points.
Week 1: 68 points
Week 2: 65 points but I did the bonus so that is 75 points right?
Also I hope it is ok that I am counting me serving running around like a chicken with its head cut off at work as my exercise because I am on my feet for hours always moving so I hope you all are ok with that :)
Also, those are points with me taking off the eating 2 hours before bed. But this week are we going to exclude that one or not? It is okay if we don't. I don't plan on winning, I just want to eat right. This is becoming harder than it should be! haha. We will get it eventually. 

Hi everyone,

I am totally confused now, but you all know it doesn't take much to confuse me!  I have a few questions:  should we just eliminate the 2 hour before bedtime for everyone?  Do we need to have a second week to get bonus points or just have the one week?  I will do mine this week.  Katie, what are your points for last week?  What are Jake's points for last week?  Karina, what are your points for both weeks?

This is what I have so far:

	Rachel	Jake	Amy	Kristi	Katie	Karina	Mom
June 11-17	70	73	73	73	72		73
June 18-24	70		70	71			71
June 25-July 1
July 2-8
Bonus Points	10	10	10	10	10

?!?!

It's funny how something we think is simple becomes so complicated!!  I don't know how the bonus points work.  Can anyone enlighten me?  Is it just for sick days? or anytime you want to use a bonus freebie, because yes, that would be quite easy.  20 extra bonus points and i can have a treat everyday!   @Rachel, I think you get the 10 bonus points from just six days, (at least that's what I hope!)  @Amy, since you did the extra last week I totally give you the 10 points! (I'm forgiving toward blonde moments)

sounds like last week should be a re-do!! and I would go for that! =-) I need to know about the extra 10 mins exercise each day.... do I have to do that all 7 days or do I still get a day off.... I did it everyday but on my day off I only did a small walk of 10 mins! So I don't know if I had to do the 20 plus 10 or what! so my points were 70 or 80 with bonus points! Good luck for the next week!! and I am fine with Karina not having to wait 2 hours before bed after she eats!! =-)

A week of sick kids

Well, I'm glad to know that I am not the only one who had a tough time this week.  Every single day last week except Sunday I was cleaning up puke! Brilee and Gage were sick and whiney so it was a VERY LONG week for me.  I was actually feeling pretty good about my points until about Friday.  That's when I was really starting to feel like I had no energy and my brain stopped functioning.  I still managed to get 71 pts which I am happy with.  But I have to admit I am off to a horrible start for this week.  I am already using my free day today.  We just got home from Lava and I don't think I have eaten a single fruit or veggie today, but I have had a few cookies and junk!  Oh well, at least the kids are not sick anymore!!! 

ps I agree that Karina should be excused from the 2 hr points

Sun burnt momma checkin in

This was a really hard week for me...and I caved...several times....Since most of us are women...and I am married to the only MAN in this competition, then I will confess that I was having a special time of the month.  We also went camping, and we swam at the city pool for over 20 hours this week.  I got a serious sun burn on my back...and all the kids look like little Mexicans...not kidding.  I was unable to exercise the last three days of the week because I could not move my back without a lot of pain, so I kind of died on the extra points thing, unless you are all going to be nice to me and let me count last weeks since I exercised an extra ten minutes all week.  Jake said he would let me, but I wanted to see if you were all ok with it.  I understand if I just lose out, but I really did do the work, it was just last week. 

It is really hard to go through a week like this without dessert...and so even though I had already used my free day on Friday when we went camping I decided I needed something sweet and I made cookies on Sunday.  I didn't have any butter so I used powdered butter, and I was so excited.  I made cranberry white chocolate chip cookies and they flopped....they looked horrible, maybe the butter, but they tasted ok.  I just felt so let down that I used my points on a mediocre treat!  I ended up eating the rest of the bag of chocolate chips.

We have swimming lessons all week this week as well and I am bracing myself for a hard one.  Jake is in Arizona all week and so it will be interesting.  Our favorite fruit this week was pears!  They are so easy to hork down... We also had lots of potatoes!  Oh yeah, we tried smores with coconut marshmallows....sooooo yummy!

my points were 70...and if I can get my bonus points for last week then I will use three of them for a 73....but let me know. 

Hi everyone,
I just got back from Oregon yesterday.  We spent a week in the mountains and it was so much fun!  One night when it was just G & G , Jim, Glenn, and I there we stayed up until 11:30 listening to Grandpa tell stories--I love those times; we couldn't believe how late it was when someone looked at their watch!!  It was so much fun to see my family and spend some time with them.  G & G and Glenn are still planning to come over to Wardle Olympics next month; hoping G & G will feel okay, but Glenn said he is coming with or without them.

Boy, we sure get confused with points don't we, but just so long as we are all trying.  I don't care if we skip the 2 hour before bedtime, becasuse some times that is a problem.  We can do the bonus points any way you want to do it.  I will just keep them seperate from the other points.

My points for this week are:  71

For the bonus points I just drew the six names again for the next two weeks and put my name for both weeks, so we would all have equal time for bonus points--two weeks each.

June 25-July 1---Try a new healthy recipe and post it--Karina, Jake, Katie, Mom (I am thinking for Jake this could even just be a new smoothie or something like that)

July 2-8---Drink an extra 2 cups of water each day--Rachel, Kristi, Amy, Mom

Looking forward to seeing everyone next month.

Love, Mom

Karina- what are your points without the two hour thing?

Happy Monday Everyone!  If I lost a point, do I just add in one of my bonus points and keep track of how many I have left?  If so, I'm at a 73.  Also, I can count washing my floor by hand as exercise right?!  And it's not because I'm awesome, my mop is broken and I was almost literally stuck to my floor!   Here's to a more motivated week, I was dragging this last week!  Good luck everyone.
 ps I would be totally ok with by passing the no food at night for Karina since she's working late!

Well my family you are doing a great job. I on the other hand am not. I got the job as a server at wingers and I work late, come home, eat dinner, and go right to bed and I don't feel bad because I am starving when I get home! I am trying to do the best I can with everything else but I have lost the race once again! Keep up the good work!

It's late but still monday!! I have 15 min before I can go to bed anyway b/c I ate some toast at 9:25 :) I am more confused after reading all the posts...I got a perfect score but not entirely sure what that is.  I thought it was 79. I counted 13 pts/per day (including bonus pts) for 6 days plus my extra point for reporting today.  Either way it sounds like we are all off to a good start.  I have to admit I really, really did not want to workout today. I think I spent 20 min just getting up the motivation to actually do it.  Not a good start to my second week not to mention Brilee has been sick all day and now I'm am not feeling the greatest! 

Jake and amys points

We both got 73. Jake also got 10 bonus points. He is super busy at work right now,so I am helping him out with posting...since he is the only guy I think it is ok.  We spent all day at swimming lessons today...it was beautiful and fun and made me excited to spend more time outside.  I think I have been inside too much.  Hope you are all having a good summer!

Mom is out of town--- I think they went camping so she can't post her numbers so when Brooke ran in to the house dad said she needed us to post her numbers and she got---- a 73 which I think is a perfect score!   I on the other hand did not get a perfect score I got a 70--- oh well hope to do better next week! =-)

OK, I'm not sure how the extra points go, I thought it was just added on, but what Amy is saying makes sense too.  On the extra points deal, Is it just for the six days, or do you have to do it all seven?  I totally spaced reading yesterday!  Also, do I have to share a new recipe or just report my points?  Ty's the one that made up a new dish this week.   I think there are 73 points possible each week w/o bonus, which is what I got barely.

Now that I can eat healthy I need to learn to read.

Well....I already messed up.  I read this blog last week and thought that I was supposed to do the extra exercise this week...so I did, and now I get to do it again next week.  But I did get all the points this week.  It was a much easier start this time around.  It has been a hard week, but a good one.  I still feel like half the water I drink just "comes out in the wash" if you know what I mean! 

I did have a questions about the bonus points....those are not added to our final score right?  They are just reserve points that we can use to replace points we might miss.....that is how I understood it....Jake was the same..so I was thinking we just make a note of when we are using a bonus point in out score..like I got 53 points, and I used 5 of my bonus points so I have 58 now...is that how you all understood it? 

A new recipe we tried this week was rosemary ranch chicken kabobs with peppers.  They were super good and very tender.  The idea came from a website called the sisters cafe....it has some great ideas and yummy stuff.  We also tried apple muffins and baked potato fries with red potatoes....just cut into wedges and then roll in a little canola oil and season salt and bake @ 400 for 30 min.  These are our favorite healthy fries.  It was a good week...and the kids are eating better too!  Hope you all had a good week too.

p.s. for my free day I had homemade chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups....

Hi

It's time to start our new contest!!  I guess there will only be 7 of us competing this time; Rachel, Jake, Amy, Kristi, Katie, Karina, and Mom

My brother, Glenn, is driving from Pittsburgh and will be here on Wednesday, so I am going to ride on to Oregon with him and spend some time with my family (going to surprise my mom and dad).  So I went ahead and drew for the extra bonus points for the next two weeks. 
           
      Week of June 11-17 is Read a conference talk each day and the three who can do this are:
            Katie, Jake and Kristi

      Week of June 18-24 is Exercise 10 minutes extra each day and the three who can do this are:
            Rachel, Amy and Karina

I did have my name in the jar, but it didn't get drawn!

Good luck and have fun being healthy!!