KiMs CraZy EaTing Clean, Vegetarian, Vegan (CVV)

I have been eating CVV for over 6 weeks now and I have dropped a pant size in my jeans. (I am still waiting for my size 4 Express ReRock jeans to arrive)  I will attempt to try on my size 6 short collection next week when it begins to warm up.  I continue to enter what I am eating on My Fitness Pal.  If you are on and would like to follow me let me know and I will send you an invite to see what I am eating daily.

I originally was working on eating for my blood type which is A and that equates to eating Vegitarian. I think my body is really liking this way I am eating.  This week we ate Green Chili Enchiladas Vegan.

We made them super spicy, me and H were sweating while we were eating them. They were so good.  Watch for the recipe I will be posting it soon.

I am in need of some more fun Vegan recipe blogs.  IF you follow any or know of any good ones please leave them in the comments section or put them up on our Facebook page.

Here is what I have been eating this week.  I will be posting recipes as fast as I can. This typing stuff take so much time to do.

Vegetarian Vegan Quinoa Soup

Green Chili Vegan Enchiladas 

What did you make this week that was YUMMY?? 

At the EnD of the Day I am making some pretty Good FOOD!!  ~ Kim from TeXas

Monthly Subscription Boxes...Do you get any?

I have recently been turned on to these Monthly Subscription Boxes that are so fun.  I thank Groupon for introducing my DOG Gunner to his first Monthly Box Subscription.  Before I realized how fun they were I actually realize that I have been getting a Monthly Box of Mixed Media items from Scarlet Lime.  

Let me know which one I should try next.

The Mixed Media Kit from Scarlet Lime is a great kit of items that are very versatile.  I like to use them for my cards and crafts.  They have a bunch of items that I would never think to use and help me get out of my comfort Zone.

I used a bunch of items in my Clip Board Craft.  The die cuts on the left clipboard, the rub-ons on the middle clipboard and the House, Bird, Sun and rub-ons were also from some of the kits.

The Next Kit that I subscribe to is courtesy of Groupon BarkBox. I am very excited to get a bunch of goodies for Gunner.   (Disclaimer If you choose to click on my link for BarkBox you will receive $5 off your subscription and I will receive a free month.)

The Third Monthly Kit I subscribe to is one of a nutritious nature.  NatureBox Now this box I don't remember how I found out about it.  I think it was from one of the 50 million blogs I follow.  They will be sending me 4-6 different snacks that are Healthy.  (Disclaimer: If you click on the link for NatureBox and purchase a subscription I will receive a free month)

Now currently I have just tried Bulu Box because if you go now and use "box6885" you can get your first box free. ***

Another one I just tried is Love with Food and if you use this code "DISCOVERFOOD" you can try your first box for $2. ***

My Absolute favorite one is GRAZE if you join using code "9MN47H9D" you will get your first week free. This is only for one lucky person because the Graze is so new they are not fully 
open. ***

At the End of the Day I will blame my monthly addictions on Jennifer from Ramblings of a Suburban Mom.  If you get a chance go check out her extensive Monthly Box list and read her great blog. ~Kim from TeXas

*** If you click on any of my subscription links I will receive a referral

Ramblin' Renee: Oh! What a Week!

Ok, I have not fallen off the face of the earth Kim:) but I have been busy. My daughter recently had surgery to remove her tonsils, adenoids, and have tubes put in her ears. That was interesting! She was a trooper though and really pulled through the surgery well. We all have high hopes that this will help alleviate some of the crazy stuff with the sinus area.

On another note, boy, am I getting tired of the news that we are going to get a really big snowstorm.... Really? I almost even got up early last week to leave at a decent time in case I had to travel in ALL that snow. Of course, it ended up being barely 2 inches and the roads were totally fine. I know that you miss all that Kim:) We are supposed to get a ton of snow starting tomorrow, we will see..... Gotta love the news coverage..... Lets get all hyped up and then nothin'...... Unless they have some other news worthy story, it always goes back to the weather.....right?

I know Kim is all eating clean and all that and she is doing a fantastic job but I have to share my newest obsession with all of you. Kelloggs sweet and salty popcorn like chips. Love, love, love them!!! The only thing, is that I can sit and eat the whole box at once. Of course, that is not what you are supposed to do, hence why I am not dropping any weight. But, If you get a chance, I am tellin' you they are really yummy!!

Another thing I found out last week is that when you refinance they come to your house now. Who knew? I thought it was a fluke like a month ago when a friend said that she was closing on their house, at their house, on a Friday night. That baffled me, but there I was last Thursday, at my house doing the same thing. I guess with all the mortgage crisis stuff going on they actually want to make sure that you have a house:) I am happy though because now we can do a little home improvement on our house. We have lived there 10 years so we are ready to make some improvements. I know I still need to post photos of my new bathroom. It is still on my to-do list. I will get it done one of these days!

Well, that's all I have for Ramblin' Renee today. I am tellin' ya'll you really need to go get some of those Kelloggs cracker, chip, things, they are really good! Have a good one!

Renee~from Illinois

~8~ Chatter of KiM & Renee'

A Big Thank you to Grace is Overrated for letting us link up to her weekly and share our answers to her doodling journal pages.  I will be linking each page from her site so if you want to print them out and follow along click through the links.

Renee' and I will be answering these Cool Journal Doodling pages weekly.  On to Page 8 . (Click "Page 8" to view the blog post from Grace is Overrated for the actual print out.)

Here we GOOOOoooo...

To Do
3 Things that have been on my to do list for ages, that never seem to get done:
Kim
1. Scrapbook
2. Craft
3. Housework
Renee'
1. scrapbook
2. clean the light fixtures in the kitchen, they have cobwebs and about 4 inches of dust on it
3. rehanging pictures after my hubby repainted like a year and a half ago

shh, these are the sounds I hear right now:
Renee: a whistle blowing, students talking next door
Kim: Hum of the Computer, my stomach making noises, birds

Two things that I used to think were impossible: (but I went ahead and did them anyway)
Kim:
1. Moving away from Illinois
2. Eating Vegetarian/Vegan
Renee'
1. Ran a 1/2 marathon
2. Earned 2 Master's Degrees

One thing that seems impossible right now: (but probably isn't.)
Renee': Keeping up with Kim:)
Kim: Moving Renee' and her Family to TeXas

Word Association:
Giraffe
Kim: Dusty (the giraffe my son adopted at Brookfield Zoo.  That ended up dyeing and I had to explain to my son why he was no longer there when we went to visit)
Renee: Bob, my son's lovie toy which is a stuffed animal giraffe

Castle
Renee: olden' times
Kim: What I am going to purchase when I win the LOTTO.

Plastic Bag
Kim: Reusable bags.  I have almost finished up my 90 million supply of these bags by using the reusable bags at the grocery store
Renee: annoying

Movie Theatre
Renee': popcorn
Kim: Buttered Popcorn

Phobia
Kim: Not being able to breath
Renee': spiders

Sandbox
Renee': children
Kim: UGH I hate sand

Guitar
Kim: Wish I could play
Renee: my dad

LIGHTNING ROUND

Lake or Ocean?

Kim: Lake

Renee: lake but I like looking at the ocean

Black flies or Mosquitoes?

Kim: UGH I hate both so NONE!! but if I had to pick I would pick Mosquitoes because I hate Flies more than anything.  They pretty much were sucking on some poop before it just landed on your food and puked the poop up on your food before eating it back up.  See what I mean I hate flies.  

Renee: really???? black flies I guess

Fire Roasted Marshmallows or Popcorn?

Kim:PopCorn

Renee: popcorn

Yacht or Canoe?

Kim: Yacht 

Renee:yacht

Hammock or Chaise Lounge?

Kim: Hammock

Renee: chaise lounge

Badminton or Beach Volleyball?

Kim: Again have to choose Badminton because I hate Sand...beach=Sand

Renee: beach volleyball

Shrimp or Steak on the Barbecue?

Kim: Steak but not now that I am eating no meat.

Renee: shrimp

Alone with a book or frisbee with a group?

Kim:Alone with a Book

Renee: alone with a book

Cottage or Resort?

Kim: Cottage 

Renee: resort

Fishing or Sunbathing?

Kim: Sunbathing as long as it is on a Lake and there is no sand around.  lol

Renee: sunbathing

Collecting Sea Shells or Building Sand castles?

Kim: Collecting Sea Shells

Renee: collecting sea shells

And that's all for this weeks Chatter...Come back next week to learn more about us.

What were some of your favorite answers...Share them with us.

Kim from TeXas & Renee' from Illinois

January 2013 Cute Critters Card Swap

JANUARY CARD DETAILS

THEME: Cute Character Animal Theme, Thank you, Birthday, Hello, Thinking of you.  (Use those Cute Animal Stamps you have)

CARD SIZE: 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 

COLORS: Your Choice  

PAPER: Must use a heavy card stock base for the card. If you are using a dark color card must put in a light color for people to write on the inside.

EMBELLISHMENTS: Must include a Cute Character ANIMAL Stamp, Embellishment etc. (No Stickers)

Here are the results of the January Cute Critter Card Swap

KiMs eating CVV~ Black Bean Burger Recipe

As some of you know I have been making black beans in the crock pot instead of canned ones. The last batch I cooked was so much that we had to freeze some.

Dear H and I had talked about trying to make our own black bean burgers. I like the fact that we know what is in the black bean burgers we are eating. This weekend we made them and here is how they turned out.

Black Bean Burgers


Approximately 6 cups of black beans rinsed and patted dry
1 medium onion minced
2 green peppers minced
1 can corn browned
Small bunch of cilantro stems pulled of
2 cloves garlic
1 cup shredded carrots minced
1/4 jalapeño with seeds minced
2 eggs
1/4 cup oats
2 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs Cumin
1 tsp Salt

Mash the black beans till they become pasty. Add all ingredients and mix well. The veggies we chopped using a Pampered Chef chopper to make them small.

Make them into patties. We made them pretty large and got 11 patties out of this quantity. Let the patties sit in the freezer for a bit  before baking. 

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. Check they are cooked thoroughly. We froze our leftovers so we can eat them during the week.  Feel free to adjust things to your liking this is a good base recipe.


Hope you like them. Met me know what you think.

At the EnD of the DaY ~Look out I LOVE Black BEANs.  Toot Toot ~Kim from TeXas

DeeP ThoughTs by KiM (Not ReaLLy DeeP)

Baby squeaky shoes. Really? What Einstein invented these shoes that go on a babies feet and SQUEAK every time they take a step. OMG!! Thought I was going to lose my mind. Just so you under stand we were not in a Library we were in a Crowded Gym, watching one of my sons sports game so there are a ton of cheering parents, screaming kids and yelling coaches. The only thing I can hear is this squeak, squeak, squeak squeak SQUEAK SQUEAK....I am thinking to my self can someone please take that squeaky toy away from that kid. Then I realize it is a mom walking her child and every time the child takes a step it is Squeak. Squeak Squeak...It went on for the whole game. UGH Seriously I could not concentrate on the game because all I heard was the squeaking. Does anyone else here it? Is anyone else as annoyed as I???

Photo Credit

I felt like Aunt Bethany on Griswold Family Christmas.
"What's that sound? 

You hear it? 

It's a funny squeaky sound."

People if you own these shoes DO NOT take them out of your HOUSE to torture other people. Keep them in your home to torture your self. UGH!!

I will have you all know my Friend date night went well it was a group date and we had a good time. There is a second date planned for tomorrow to go to the movies with her daughter. Here is a picture of me and my new Friend Scrapbooking. :)

I did not end up going to the movies but we did go running 4 miles. It is nice because right now she is running about as fast as me. But as she gets going I am sure she will be running right past me since currently I am only at an 11 minute mile. Super slow.

She let me put our picture up on the Blog aren't we cute.  I am not a huge fan of pictures of myself so enjoy this one because it may be another year before you see me again.  LOL

HOLY COW we got to 81 views yesterday.  WHOOP WHOOP I believe that may be the highest we have gotten in one day.  Spread the word people Spread the word.

Maybe one day Renee' will come back.  She says she will but as Si would say on Duck Dynasty "Na"

She is tooo busy for us these days.  :(

Actually Renee' has had a lot going on in her personal life.  Renee' we are here for you to unload your burden of life on us.  We want to hear all about it.

I would really like to get one of those voice activated typing programs.  I would get a WHOLE lotta more blogging done if I did not have to spend so much time typing. You know how fast I type remember this post. I am one slow typer.  I think I will take the test again and see if I have improved....

UGH I have gotten worse 41.2 my last time was 46.1WPM.  Hang on I am going to try this again.  HA HA  53.2 WPM.  That was exhausting it is hard to concentrate on getting the words typed correctly and fast.  I am well on my way to 70WPM.

Take the typing test here and post your results in the comment section. It only takes a minute...I know you are curious to see how fast you can type. See if you can beat my high score of 53.2WPM.

At the EnD of the DaY I am excited to have a New Friend. ~Kim from TeXas.

KiMs CraFting CloSet - WeaVe ScraP MonSter

Well as many of you I too have Pinned 50 MILLION things in hopes of actually making something.  It so happens I have actually CRAFTed one of the things I have Pinned.

Somewhere along the line I began collecting Felt and fabric, I believe from Working for A sewing Machine company I decided that I would Sew.  Puahahah  They also owned a sewing supply company and what that means is KILLER Employee sales.  Since I did not own a sewing machine I did not get a lot of fabric but I did get some. Since I have I have transported the fabric from Illinois to TeXas I need to get working on using this stuff up.  I did purchase a sewing machine for that day when I decide to sew the cute monsters...Still trying to find someone to come over and show me how to use it.  Or just tall enough to get the box down from the high shelf for me.

Photo Credit

I have Pinned this ScrapMonster from Oops I Craft My Pants because when pinning it I was thinking that this would be great to use all that fabric I have been collecting.

From her posts I was able to figure out how to loom these little guys. (SORRY for the bad pictures. It was night, Dark and I was taking them with my Iphone.) I took an old pizza box and cut it up added string and started weaving.  I think the best part was ripping the fabric.  As I sat in the living room ripping fabric my oldest said "Can I rip fabric?"  OHHH YEAH!!  This is great I will begin weaving while he keeps ripping...I would cut the top of the fabric for him to be able to rip.  He had so much fun the next night he asked me if I had any more fabric to rip for him.  I guess I will have to make another one.

I began by weaving the fabric in and out of the strips of yarn/thread that I had wrapped around the pizza box. When I got done I had to figure out 1. how to get it off the box and 2. how to sew the ends together.  

My friend/neighbor suggested I tie them in knots.  So I did that and it seemed to work out.  I saved some room to stuff the Monster with batting and Whal La!  I may trim the ends a bit to clean it up.  Let me know what you think and what I can do to make it easier next time.  Do you make these little guys? 

At the End of the DAY ~KiM finally  made a CRaFt.   YIPPEE

KiMs Kitchen Creation CVV ~Two Ingredient cookies

These cookies are popping up all over Pinterest and blogs so I too thought I would play along. 
Here's how it turned out.

Two ripe bananas
1/2 cup oats
Milk chocolate chips

Mashed bananas and oats together. Added milk chocolate chips. Then I scooped them on to a baking pan. Cooked at 350 for 15 minutes.

Now Renee would NOT like these because they have bananas and she does not like bananas but me. YUM!! They are best eaten out of the oven. After that they are just okay. I think the boys need them a little sweeter so next time may add vanilla.

~At the End of the DaY they are little Tasty Morsels ~Kim from TeXas.

A is for Annoying ~ EPIC #overusedword

If one word can be like nails on a chalk board it is EPIC.

Last night watching Entertainment Tonight (ET "go home") They used EPIC to describe a news story coming on.

Hyundi has used it for their #EPICplaydate campaign

NFL used it for its Make it EPIC campaign

The NFL broadcasters use the word EPIC when describing a good play

Image from epic movie 

EPIC for an animated movie.

Image from Game Stop

Disney is getting involved with EPIC Mickey

MLB used it for "MLB always EPIC"

Quaker Oats  says to "eat oatmeal and have an EPIC day"

Image from Epic Brewing

There is an EPIC brewery in Colorado

Image from Epic Hotels

There is an EPIC Hotel in Miami

Image from Norwegian Cruises

Norwegian has an EPIC cruise ship

Where will it end??

It is one of those words that I have Honed in on and can't get away from it.  I could be 10 rooms away from the TV and I will only hear the word EPIC.

Blah Blah Blah EPIC Blah BlaH BLAH!!!

Now my dear children love to play along.  Mom did you hear what they just said???  UGH Really??

Those things are not EPIC.  SOmething that is EPIC was the CRAZY Meteor shower in Russia.  NOW those people who experienced that can say the word EPIC because that was Freakishly EPIC.

I Have a bad feeling that EPIC is going to be around for a LOOOOONG time this year.

You need to start listing for the word EPIC and let me know where else you hear the word...It is only going to get worse people before they latch onto another word.  Till then HELP ME!!

Does this word annoy you as much as me??  What word drives  YOU craZy that you hear all the time?  Leave me a comment 

At the EnD of the DaY this just goes to show me that I need to stop watching TV.  ~Kim from TeXas.

DeeP ThoughTs by KiM (Not ReaLLy DeeP)

To my fitted sheet why do you constantly eat the other sheets blankets and pillow cases I dry you with. I go to take you out of the dryer and you are one big ball of wetness.

Thank you Whole Foods for listening to me and it was sooo much better shopping there today.  Except for the fact that I was wearing flip FloPs and hit a wet patch.  OOOOOH Slide my shin right into the cart.  Almost started CrYing it hurt sooooo Bad!!

Does anyone know how to put a poll into a Blogger post? I can't figure it out so I have put a Poll on our main page. It is just to see if how many people REALLY read our BLOG. If you get a chance go HERE to take the POLL.  We get so many StatS but I don't know which are real and/or SPAM.
Thank You.

I have subscribed to GRAZE and I LOVE it.  I hide the snacks in my PURSE so no one else can eat them.  They are my SecreT treat.  It is such a fun weekly box of snacks.  I would take a picture but I recycled the Box and ate one of the treats already.  If you want to get signed up for this with a discount...I have a few codes that I can give out.  Email me and I will send you the code if you are interested.

I made a new Scrapbooking friend this past week. We are heading to Archiver's to Scrapbook which is really exciting for me.  Since moving here to TeXas I am still trying to "friend date" as I like to call it.  I am at a place in my life that I really need to find friends that like me for all my weirdness, obsessions, my opinionated stances, crafting and silliness.  This is hard to do.  It is so easy with Renee' and my other good friends A, L that I have made back in Illinois.  They are the constant because they keep coming back to play or are just as CraZy and obsessed as I am.  lol  I will let you all know how my "friend date" goes this weekend.  Wish me LucK.

Tomorrow we are finally going to take down the Christmas Lights on our house.  Since my dear H does not like to climb ladders that go up 2 1/2 stories I have to.  You do realize that if I go down my house hold will shrivel up and die.  They won't know where anything in the house is, nor how to make a meal, or bathe.  hahah.  It is finally nice enough and dear H is home from work so we can rip these puppies down and put Christmas away till I am back up the ladder next year.

Okay wish me luck...as I was growing larger I purchased Express ReRock Jeans in a size 8.  Well now those are falling down...So I revert to my Size 6 ReRock jeans which I am now finding to be loose and I need to keep pulling them up.  In my event to fit in some "cool" jeans and not "mom" jeans I purchased two size 8.  Well with this whole eating CVV stuff I must be losing something because my jeans are loose.  I am now sending the second pair of size 8 back to Express for a size.......Drum Roll.....4.  Yes I said it size 4, which if you have Express Jeans you know it is really a size 6 every where else.  HA I am sure when I get the size 4 I will be sausage in a sausage casing trying to fit into them...But I gives me an incentive to keep up the good healthy eating because it must be working.

That's all for today!! Have a great weekend!!  ~Kim from TeXas

~7~ ChatteR of Renee' and KiM

A Big Thank you to Grace is Overrated for letting us link up to her weekly and share our answers to her doodling journal pages.  I will be linking each page from her site so if you want to print them out and follow along click through the links.

Renee' and I will be answering these Cool Journal Doodling pages weekly.  On to Page 7. (Click "Page 7" to view the blog post from Grace is Overrated for the actual print out.)

Here we GOOOOoooo...

TO DO

1 Thing I'll finish Early
Kim: My 14 cards I need to make for our next swap
Renee: My iced tea for the day

1 Thing that is slightly Overdue
Renee: a doctor's appt.
Kim: Reading info on our health insurance

1 Thing that'll be right on time
Kim: Me
Renee: you know, I should not have to say

3Places in my city/town that I've never visited:
Kim
1. Downtown...I hear we have one somewhere
2. Lots of Restaurants
3. Lots of stores - We don't have much else
Renee
1. Aurora Fire Museum
2. Red Oak Forest Preserve
3. The casino

I think...
Renee: I miss my "bestie" Kim:)
Kim: Renee' needs to hop her BUTT on a flight to TeXas for a little VA Kay.

My greatest success of the last seven days..
Kim: Getting our Cup Crafting going
Renee: Surviving my daughter's surgery with her

Two things that made it possible
Kim:
1. My Neighbor L
2. My Dear H who after seeing the Cups and Crafts is no longer laughing.  
Renee:
1. My hubbie
2. My own strength

Random Observation
Renee: all kids love minecraft right now
Kim: Renee' is sooo Right I can not figure out WHY.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Up in the Air or Under Water?
Kim: Under Water
Renee: up in the air

Bath or Shower?
Renee: shower, never hang out in my own filth:)
Kim: SHOWER.  ANyone who knows me, KnoWs I can not go into any Hot Tubs or Baths because I can't stand sitting in a cesspool of SCANGE. 

Spicy or Mild?
Kim:SPICY
Renee: mild

Watercolor or Oil Paint?
Renee: watercolor
Kim: OIL Paint

Jigsaw puzzle or Crossword Puzzle?
Kim: JigSaw Puzzle
Renee: jigsaw puzzle

Hot Pink or Electric Blue?
Renee: hot pink
Kim: Neither

Circus or Ballet?
Kim: Circus...Cant look away.
Renee' ballet, the circus is creepy....

Desert or Jungle?
Renee: jungle
Kim: Jungle

Pajamas or Birthday Suit?
Kim: PJs
Renee:pajamas

Swimming Pool or Lake?
Renee: swimming pool
Kim: LAKE

Soup or Sandwich?
Kim: Soup
Renee: soup

Astronomy or Astrology?
Renee: astronomy
Kim:Astrology

Hockey or Baseball?
Renee: hockey
Kim: Hockey

Front or back of the Class?
Kim: Front
Renee: back

80s or 90s?
Kim: 90's
Renee:90's

That's All Folks....Let us know some of your favorite answers to the questions above.
~Kim from TeXas ~Renee' from Illinois.