Love Of Oats

A blog dedicated to balancing a healthy and fun life… with oats!

Monthly Archives: December 2011

Thursday Tip: Use your coffee filter basket

Lately, I’ve been super inspired by Pinterest.  I use it for everything… from recipes, to house organization tips, to even collecting a gazillion ideas for Baby E’s 1st birthday party which is in almost 5 weeks (wow!!!)…

That being said, I’ve been organizing and trying to get rid of some clutter lately…

One of the things I threw out was our old coffeemaker… One morning, when rushing to work, I broke the pot… since I had a few coupons to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, it was actually close to the same price to just buy a new Cusinart coffeemaker (it was on sale AND had a mail-in rebate) than ordering the coffee pot online (it wasn’t sold in stores) and having it shipped… I decided to keep the old coffeemaker just in case the new one wasn’t up to my coffee “standards”so I had a replacement (coffee is very important around here with our almost 11 month old baby girl!)… well, it’s been a few months and I am in love with its replacement so I finally threw the thing away, but when I was going thru the box, I decided to save the coffee filter basket because I immediately realized it had a double purpose: mini colander!

I make baby food for Baby E nearly every weekend for the freezer or fridge… her favorite food is peas and she love lentils so I have been in search of a smaller colander because the one I have, the peas and lentils slip thru the cracks and I lose half the food when trying to strain the water out after boiling them!

I can’t believe I never realized this but it’s such a great product – especially since it has a little handle!  And it’s so much cheaper (free!) than buying one of those small colanders for berries.  I especially love using it to rinse canned beans under the faucet.

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Who knows, maybe I am the only one that finds this absolutely amazing, but it’s the little things that excite me :)

I’m planning on making this a weekly series, so if you have a tip that you’d like to share with me, please email me or leave it in the comments and I’ll post about it here each Thursday!

Workout Plan 2-8 Dec

I used to post these back when I was a regular updater of the blog and it really helped keep me focused.  Lately, with the holidays and Baby E’s birthday approaching, I’ve been running around like a nut and not really focusing on any exercise goals so I thought this is a good way to get focused and get back in the swing of things Smile

    Day

    Exercise
    2 Dec (Fri) Treadmill Intervals (30 min)
    3 Dec(Sat) 30 minute walk with Baby E
    30 minutes strength training
    4 Dec (Sun) Treadmill Intervals (30 min)
    5 Dec (Mon) 20 minutes of yoga / stretching
    6 Dec (Tues) Rest
    7 Dec (Wed) 20 minutes of yoga / stretching
    8 Dec (Thurs) 30 minutes strength training
    Treadmill Intervals:  alternating 2 min of running with 2 min of fast walking
    Strength Training:  Turbo Fire routine, P90X, or free weight exercises
    Yoga:  On Demand, AM / PM Yoga, or Shiva Rea DVD
    The key here is I made my plan with no crazy expectations and it’s REAL. 
    By that, I mean I know Mon thru Thurs are a little crazy and it is typically unrealistic for me to carve out a chunk of time and still get adequate rest/sleep.  Prior to realizing this, I was either exercising at 8pm OR getting frustrated that exercise wasn’t possible and becoming discouraged.  Although the plan above isn’t a super extensive training program, I think it is what works for me and is realistic.
    Fri, Sat, and Sun are off days from work so I know it is possible to carve out some sort of time to get in some physical activity either with or without Baby E.  Mon thru Wed are typically crazy busy days so I decided to plan our a rest day there as well as some very light yoga.  I haven’t done yoga in months so I thought I could get some yoga poses in during these days even if it’s broken out into 10 minutes in the am when I get up and 10 minutes in the pm before I go to bed.  I think this will help with keeping me relaxed (I get stressed out & overwhelmed easily!), refreshed, and focused on the present moment… and Thurs night is a little bit more relaxed because I know I won’t be rushing out the door on Friday so I can definitely squeeze in some strength training at night when I am unwinding with the hubby…

    I just wish it took me less than 10 months to actually find a rhythm that works after becoming a mommySmile