I want one of these... BAD

Its the new Honda Insight, and its a hybrid. Ok I know it looks like a spaceshipy, hybridy car but to be honest the more I look at them the more I like the way they look, and they get 60 MPG city and 66 MPG highway!!! thats enough to make me buy any car regardless of what it looks like. Its a Honda so its bullet proof. I drove a Acura Integra for a few years (Honda and Acura are the same company, Acura is their "luxury line") and it was the BEST car I have even owned. The only problem I ever had with it (in 3 years) was a tire blowing out on me but that was just because I didn't replace the tires soon enough, but as far as mechanical issues it was perfect. I would just do regular maintainance on it and it ran like a champ. After driving nothing but huge suv gas guzzlers over the last couple years, I am SO ready for something that gets great gas milage again. Just think of the road trips we could take in that thing. It would cost $17 to drive to Las Vegas at $3/gallon, and $29.31 to get to LA, thats just such a delightful thought! It has a hatchback too, so there is decent room for luggage/cargo/big bulldogs. My only challenge is convincing the hubby that we NEED one of these. So I'm going to put it out into the universe that Ashley Kozlowski wants a Honda Insight, I'm picturing myself driving one right now. I fully expect this to materialize soon, I'll keep you posted.

Both my boys LOVE "the big bed" :)

Oops I did it again

So remember how on the 21 day no sweet treats challenge I said my 1st instinct was that it wasn't a good idea because it was going against intuitive eating and I was scared I could end up feeling deprived and then overeat on sweets. Yep totally happened, always listen to your instincts. I did 6 days with no sweet treats then spent the next 3 eating way more sweets then I normally would, so it was pretty much all for nothing. Its amazing what I can talk myself into doing, and make myself believe its not a diet. "I'm breaking my sugar addiction, its not a diet" If it looks like a diet, sounds like a diet, GUESS WHAT? its a diet. I'm sure the challenge (which each person sets their own goal) has been great for a lot of the people doing it. But for me putting any kind of food restrictions on myself just doesn't work, I end up over eating at some point EVERY TIME. I read Intuitive eating a year and a half ago and for the most part I have stuck to it, but a couple of times I have fell back into my old dieting ways, and every time it ends up being a mistake. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition in INSANITY! I feel like a broken record talking about this stuff, so hopefully I have learned my lesson this time and I won't be writing a post like this ever again.

I'm not eating sweets for 21 days

Lately I've been really noticing that I always have this major need to have something sweet after my meals (lunch & dinner anyways) and since I eat whatever I want pretty much I satisfy my cravings. Some of you know I used to be majorly addicted to dieting. I would eat super clean for a while and get pretty lean. But then I would always get to the point when I would feel deprived and binge on junk food for a day or 2 then feel terrible about it and put myself right back on clean eating until I felt deprived again and then the vicious cycle would repeat itself. A year and a half ago I read a book called intuitive eating the truly changed my life. It taught me how to break that dieting cycle, listen to my body and finally have a healthy relationship with food again.

My friend Kat has a diet/fitness blog its mommygoodbody.blogspot.com if you want to check it out. I was on it the other day and she proposed a challenge for everyone to make a diet or fitness related goal and stick to it for 21 days. You report back on her blog each day that you succeed. Each of those reports is a entry and at the end there is a drawing for someone to win a cute workout clothes item. Since I've had this sugar addiction after meals I said I would cut down to sweeting after 1 meal instead of 2. Kat sort of called me out and said that wasn't good enough and I should be more ambitious and cut sweets out all together. I thought by cutting out treats completely it would be going against intuitive eating and I was afraid I could possibly end up feeling deprived and end up bingeing on sweets at some point. So my original thought was that I was way too scared to do that and it wasn't a good idea. Kat helped me realize that I was eating these sweets after meals out of habit, not really as legitimate, every once in a while sweet craving, and the only way to break this habit it to cut out the sweets completely. She is right. While I believe being a intuitive eater is healthy, having a sugar addiction is not. Thats why I have decided to cut out sweet treats for 21 days. I always feel SO much better when I keep the sugar at bay (not to mention I get a lot leaner) so I'm actually really excited to do this and feel really good again. If you feel so inclined you should do it with me, the challenge officially starts tomorrow. I could use a buddy for support.

My new favorite dinner

Healthy turkey mini meat loafs

This is a biggest loser recipe and its super lean and yummy. Also I tweaked the recipe a little and added little side notes which I explain throughout the recipe in blue

You will need the following



1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 stalk of celery, coarsely chopped
2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I'd never heard of this before, it sounded like something I was going to have to get at a specialty mexican shop but no its at the regular store, I've gotton it at wal-mart and reams, it's just down the mexican aisle by the refried beans and taco shells and what not)
1 (20-ounce) package JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE® lean ground turkey breast (ok it doesn't have to be Jennie-o just make sure its the really lean 97-99% lean ground turkey breast)
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 egg whites

For Topping
1/4 cup fat free and sugar free ketchup (I just used organic ketchup, regular ketchup is fine too just not quite as healthy)
1 tablespoon chipotle pepper adobo sauce (I found the meatloaf to be way to spicy for my taste when I added this to the topping so I just used the same amount of Worcheshire sauce instead and it turned out great, but if you like really spicy stuff go for it)
1 tablespoon brown sugar substitute (such as Splenda® Brand) I don't like splenda since its artificial so I just used regular brown sugar, but either one will work fine

Preheat oven to 350 F



Chop up onion, carrot and celery like so (you don't have to do it too small)





put it all in a food processor and blend till it's finely chopped (I have a tiny food processor so it took me 3 times to get it all)



Heres the adobo peppers, just mix them in with the other veggies, I just forgot to



In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey with the peppers and vegetable mixture. Add egg whites and oats; gently mix until combined (Just mush it up with your hands)



Until it looks like this



Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray (if you don't have a muffin tin, I'm sure a regular cookie sheet would work fine, the mixture is firm enough)

Ball up and put into wells, put it in the oven for 20 minutes



I had this much left over to cook up later

Now for the topping



Just blend all the ingredients up in a bowl and honestly I just eyeballed it instead of measuring it out



After 20 minutes in the oven take them out and put topping on, put back in the oven for another 8 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 170°F.



and wha-la pair it up with a salad or some veggies and I would also usually add a 1/2 cup of brown rice or a half a sweet potato for good carbs. Also I am obsessed with this dressing from Gingers health food cafe in Springville. Cilantro curry dressing, its a little sweet and a little spicy from the curry and it's flipping delicious. I put a little ranch on it too this time. I always put 2 sometimes 3 different dressing's on my salad (like italian on 1/2 then ranch on the other half for example) I just like having multiple tastes I guess

P.S. If you don't like spicy things at all you can omit the chipole peppers all together

P.S.S. if you don't have worcheshire sauce you could just combine the ketchup and brown sugar or just use ketchup. Sometimes I just hate going and buying a condiment or spice I don't have for just one recipe and then maby never using it again

Oh and here are the nutrition facts:

Tara's Turkey Mini-Meatloaf
Biggest Loser season 7 all-star Tara Costa's favorite ranch recipe.
Per Meatloaf: 110 Calories, 1g Fat, 25mg Cholesterol, 180mg Sodium, 6g Carbohydrates, 16g Protein, <1g Fiber

So there you go, I hope you love these as much as I do :)

Where are ya'll?

Where is everyone??? I think everyone forgot about me since I went private

The I wish it was summer post

There must be something about the middle of February. I've just been thinking today that I'm really ridiculously like beyond ready for spring. I remembered writing a blog about this exact same thing last winter and I looked to see when I wrote and it was Feb 16th, Ha. This must just be that time of the year that I get really fed up and impatient with winter.

I'm really excited to do this soon:



Ok well maby not at the beach (not that I'd be opposed to that) but I'll settle for the scera pool



I just thought this picture was funny. More like I heart skin cancer. Did anyone else used to go to the tanning salon WAY to much? Sheesh I was like the queen in high school, I have this date dance picture of homecoming my junior year and I swear I look like a blond indian, big regrets there.

Also really excited to use these soon:



and this:



and eat this:



Watermelon = happiness

and I'm looking forward to this:



Yes a green lawn to mow

and this:



Better believe I'll be hiking Timp again this summer, who's in?

OK I found a laying out picture



Me, Brooke and Carolyn a few summer ago in Las Vegas

and hopefully going here



Disneyland! I'm really dying to take a little So. Cal trip and take Crew there

So thats it for now, come on summer!