Cactus Pear

Recently I decided to try cactus pears (prickly pears) because they were on special for two for a dollar. 🙂 First step after purchasing was to figure out how to eat it. Since none of my family or friends were familiar with this fruit, I found a video on YouTube…

Armed with knowledge, I attacked my pear.

Very pretty. :3

The flavor is unlike anything I’ve ever had before, slightly sweet, fleshy…  The plentiful seeds are a great source of fiber, but were too hard to chew so I spat them out! XD

One word of caution, the little spots on the fruit have itty bitty little pricklies. I rubbed my finger the wrong way on one and was irritating for quite a while afterwards. -.-;

To conclude, it was inexpensive, fun, and I would totally try cactus pears again.

Thanks for reading!

-Anna San♥

Celebrate the Red White and Blue-berry Pancakes?

Hope everyone had a lovely Independence day weekend – I know I did! Family, food, fireworks and pancakes. Yes pancakes. Muwahahaha…. 🙂

  
Tada! 😀 This is easy peasy and gives you that holiday feeling. Bon appetite!

Thanks for reading!
-Anna San♥

Ma-Ma-Ma-Matcha

Hi hi everyone! 

Today I enjoyed a cup of Matcha and am excited to show off the pictures from this special occasion! 🙂 I recently purchased a can of green tea powder from Whole Foods and had a traditional Japanese bamboo tea whisk from Teavana that I’ve been waiting to use.

  

My first attempt was rather messy, but have 29 more servings of matcha left to become a pro with… 😉

Thanks for reading!

-Anna San♥

Happy Easter! 2015

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you had a beautiful day today! Mine was amazing. 🙂 I cannot begin to express how blessed I am to have such a large close-knit family. My Mom and Grandmas’ are awesome cooks and one day I hope I’ll be one too! For now – everyone will just have to enjoy my super-extra-well-done oven french toast. LOL!

Traditions make holidays super special. Some of the ones we have for Easter are having poppy seed rolls (passed down by my Czech grandmother), purchasing an Easter Lily, having a butter lamb and eating horse radish before getting our Easter baskets – the last two which we adopted from the Polish parish we were members of before. (We’re not Polack! Lol!) Variety is the spice of life. 🙂

And… of course I couldn’t resist and had to record the day through a series of pictures. Enjoy!

Our decorated Japanese Maple :3

My sisters gorgeous Easter Lily 🙂

Butter lamb – have you lost weight???

Mom’s china out for the holiday!

Some of Grandma’s goodies – so good!

Mmm…mashed potatoes.

More of Grandma’s yummy treats.

Poppy seed rolls – our Czech family tradition! Yum-may!

Candied Yams

Beer spiked sauerkraut and kielbasa – seconds please!

Other Grandma’s awesome jello fluff! You make the best Grandma!

Light Strawberry Cheese Cake

In the famous words of Ponyo “HAMMM!!!” lol

Ambience 🙂

My glass – half full! 😉

Grandma’s colorful salad. 🙂

My Easter “basket” – Om nom nom!

Daffodils at my parent’s home. So pretty!

 

Good food, great company and many wonderful memories!

Thanks for reading!

-Anna San♥

Success is More than a Number

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Last week I had a “bad” weigh-in. The scale said I had gained nearly three pounds! I was like “Say wut?!” Sometimes deep down we know we “deserve” that weight gain, however I was really angry because I didn’t. I am not cheating by sneaking junk food and I’m not overeating or skipping workouts. So whats the deal? Frustrated, I brought it to the Lord in prayer and asked that the scale stay the same. When I got home from church, the scale changed it’s mind. The readout declared that there wasn’t a weight gain – and that I had stayed exactly the same. Thank you Lord!

I tried to think of anything that could possibly stall my weight loss and attempted to amend it. Not enough rest? Get in bed sooner. Bound up system? Detox drinks every morning. Could this not-quite-precisely measured 2 tbsps of lite dressing be a culprit? Make sure not to use all of it. Despite this rather anal mentality, I was more relaxed and kept my personal achievements in mind….

Recent Successes:

• I can wrap a regular towel around myself – instead of needing a bath sheet
• Noticeably slimmer thighs and ankles
• Slid a size 6 ring on my left ring finger (whoa)
• Less back fat
• Losing inches all over
• Surprised my swim instructor with how much my swimming has improved 😀
• My replacement clothes are getting loose and more items are ending up in the donation bag 🙂
• Getting more and more compliments on my appearance
• People are asking for my secret weight loss technique (lol!)
• An all around feeling of well being

We can’t rely on the scale to advise us of success because that number is just one small piece of a much bigger story. 🙂

This week I had a 2 pound loss bringing me to a total of 45 pounds lost since 1-1-2014. This means I have officially passed my 20% weight loss goal! 😀 😀 😀 Next step is to bring my BMI out of the obese category – which I’m really close to; then I’ll be working toward my 30%. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

-AnnaSan♥