Door to Door Organics

I'm so thankful for a great friend who introduced me to Door to Door Organics. It's this awesome service that delivers fresh organic produce to your door. They have various boxes of produce to choose from. Each week they have the set produce, but if there is something in the box that week that you don't like you can make up to 5 substitutions.

Here's what's in my box this week:

1 Acorn Squash

3 Kiwi

2 Red Bell Peppers

Romaine Lettuce

3 Lemons

Broccoli

Celery

3 Red Starkrimson Pears

4 Red Plums

1 Lb Black Autumn Royal Grapes

3 Peaches

Delivery is free for most areas, so I just have to pay for my produce. My box just costs $32.66. There is no subscription fee and no cancellation fee if I decide I no longer want to receive door to door organics. Also, if you know you're going to be on vacation for a week or don't need produce for a week you can schedule a "vacation." How cool is that?

Wait it gets better! They even have a kitchen tab where it will pull up recipes based on what's in your box that week. My meal planning for the week is coming straight from their website. I'm super excited to try new recipes. The meal plan will even create my grocery list.

Even better, it saved me money and time on my weekly grocery shopping. Usually I spend at least an hour in the grocery store. This is even with a list that is organized by the route I shop in the store. My list is also based on my weekly meal planning, so I don't purchase excess. Now I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner nearly every day of the week. I typically spend $100-$115 a week on groceries. With door to door organics and my weekly grocery bill yesterday, I only spent $89. WOOHOO!!! Plus shopping only took me 30 minutes because I did not spend any time in the produce section bagging fruits and veggies.

Unfortunately, this is not available in all areas. It is available in Kansas City, Colorado, Chicago, Michigan and some states out East. If you are in one of these areas and would like to receive 50% off your first box just leave a comment below. I will email you a coupon. So fun!

Yummy Pear and Granola Muffins

You must try these muffins. They are delicious!!!

3/4 C canned pear nectar (I couldn't find this at the store so I used cranberry nectar)

2 egg whites

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon peel, grated

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup low-fat granola

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cup chopped pear

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Whisk together the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl

3. Stir both flours and sugar in medium bowl until no sugar lumps.

4. Mix in granola, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add pear, toss to coat.

5. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture until blended (batter will be thick)

6. Divide among 12 prepared muffin cups.

7. Bake until golden brown and center comes out clean about 20 minutes.

ENJOY!

What's Cookin' in the Kitchen?

So I'm not too great at posting my meal plan every week, but here is the meal plan for this week. Just a reminder that we are still doing P90X, so our meals are not all that interesting.
(On a side note, I have lost 12 lbs since starting P90X. WOOHOO!)

Sunday Night: Steaks on the grill, Salad, and Baked Sweet Potatoes

Monday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ raisins, cup of milke w/ protein powder
Lunch: Chicken Pasta Pomodoro
Dinner: Turkey Burger w/o the bun, Small Salad w/ strawberries

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Whole Wheat bagel, Greek yogurt, and banana
Lunch: Chicken burrito
Dinner: Tilapia & Asparagus

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Whole Grain granola muffin, Greek yogurt & berries
Lunch: Whole Wheat turkey sandwich
Dinner: Lemon Chicken breast & zucchini

Thursday:
Breakfast: Protein shake & 1 cup fruit
Lunch: Grilled chicken salad
Dinner: Salmon with green apple salsa

Friday:
Breakfast: Whole wheat waffle w/ sugar free syrup, banana and milk
Lunch: Chicken pita
Dinner: Date Night

Saturday:
Breakfast: Egg whites, breakfast potatoes, Greek yogurt, fruit
Lunch: Sonoma Salad (copycat recipe from Spin Pizza)
Dinner: Buffal meatloaf and salad

Found a New Hobby

This past week I was in Joplin, MO working a running camp. I went as part of my sports medicine rotation. The camp had about 200 kids at all levels 7th-12th grade. I learned so much while I was there as far as evaluating injuries, deciding if an x-ray is needed, and how to treat certain injuries. I just loved it! I also chose to run with the kids during the workouts. I figured, I'm there why not get a good work out in too.

I have never been much of a runner, so I wasn't sure how this would go. Eric and I have been doing P90X since June, and I have lost 10 lbs so far. I think maybe 4 times since June I have gone running with him. We would run a mile and that would be it. I just couldn't push myself to run any further.

I started my fellowship July 1, and one of the fellows is a runner. Janelle ran in highschool and college. She even runs local races around KC. I thought hey maybe she will be my motivation to give running a try. We ran on the treadmill twice prior to camp. She had me jog 5 minutes, walk 1 minute, jog 5, walk 1, etc. The first time it was a total of 15 minutes jogging. The second time I jogged a total of 20 minutes. This was the longest I've ever run. I was so excited.

Well at Running Camp, we got up at 5:30 to run before it got too hot. The first day we were told to run 25 minutes. I ran with the slowest group and ended up running 2.5 miles. That's the longest ever! The next morning we only ran for 20 minutes, and I ran 2.17 miles. Still proud of my success. The third morning we ran for 30 minutes, which ended up being 2.75 miles for me. WOOHOO!!! I was getting so excited about running and proud of myself for doing it.

Well on Friday morning we had the end of camp 5K. I had never ran a 5K, but my goal was to do it. I was in the very back of the group but I completed it without walking. That's all that mattered. I completed the 5K in 33:36 WOOHOO!!! There was this HUGE hill after the first mile. The hill slowed me down to a 16 minute pace. It was such a hard hill to run for my first 5K. I was shooting for a 30 minute 5K, but the hill slowed me down a ton. Oh well! I'm still proud that I did it. I plan on continuing the running along with our P90X workout. I'll keep you posted on how things go.

All sweaty after finishing my first 5K. Thanks Janelle for pushing me and believing in me :)

Hello Paycheck!!!!

I am now a paid "employee" at the school. I started my OMT Fellowship this month. That means I am getting paid, and my last year of tuition will be paid for. WOOHOO!!!

I even have my own desk.



I will be spending this extra year doing a lot of things. My main focus through the fellowship is to improve my OMT skills, Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment. This is the adjustment component of becoming an osteopathic physician. This is somewhat similar to chiropractic. I will also be helping run the first and second year med student labs, lead fellow reviews prior to tests, do weekly tutoring, and doing a research project. Each month I will also be on different clinicals. Man I'm going to be busy.

Getting in Shape

So I'm attempting it again. We are doing P90X along with the diet plan. I survived my first week and lost 5 lbs. WOOHOO!!! I also started running for my cardio workouts. I ran a mile yesterday in 10 minutes 30 seconds. Today I ran a mile in 9 minutes 45 seconds. WOOOHOO!!!

The non-profit organization I volunteer with is having a 5k in October, and I'm determined to run it. :) Never done anything like that before, so we'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Camping this weekend for 4th of July, so I'll post pictures next weekend.

What's Cookin' in the Kitchen?

Monday: Garlic Shrimp Stir-fry

Tuesday: Chicken Alfredo

Wednesday: Soft Tacos

Thursday: Vietnamese Noodle Soup

Friday: Taking the in-laws out to a KC favorite

Saturday: Cinnamon Rolls
Taking the in-laws out to a KC favorite

Sunday: Left overs from the weekend