Busy But Healthy – Featured Friday

Happy Friday everyone! I know you missed me last week!! Hey we are all aloud a little time off. For example I sit here at Barnes and Nobles right now writing because I had a day from hell with two kids that have me sleep deprived these days. They just have no interest in sleeping I guess. So I’m ready to throw in the towel and give up on trying anything else, no more let’s try putting them in earlier, let’s try shutting the light off even if she is afraid of the dark, let’s try no nap, let’s try holding off his bottle at night, lets try telling her she’s waking up Mommy (which is the truth by the way!) I just want to give up and let her do whatever the hell she wants to do. Everyone keeps telling me if she’s not calling or crying for us and plays in her bed then let her be, well here is the thing. One she is waking me up because she reads her books to her babies (here I am thinking I’d outsmart her and work on getting that light off at night so she couldn’t read, then I realized, well she’s not reading anyways she’s using her imagination!! Duh!) Two, she replays her music when she wakes, it’s loud, Three, she sometimes wakes her baby brother up, then I have two babies up at 3am. Lastly and most importantly when she is up for hours at night she most likely WILL NOT nap the next day and is a total B-I-T-C-H!! Humiliates me in public by whining and pitching fits which she never does when she’s well rested, and argues with  me about everything and anything. Sooooooooooo I ask you……..would you get upset if you woke up to go to the bathroom at 1am and your three and a half year old was up playing in bed??

Anyways……….my gosh, I guess I needed that vent because today is Featured Friday and I’m supposed to be featuring someone!!! Well today Kristine from Busy But Fit is that lucky someone! Let’s welcome Kristine and talk about what she blogs and writes about. Not only does Kristine cook some fabulous but healthy dishes she does A LOT more. This girl amazes me. She is truly someone to look up to if you’ve recently (or not so recently have had kids and never got rid of that baby weight. Like me……she gives me hope that someday I too can do it!) Kristine lives in the Suburbs of Vancouver, Canada with her husband and two young daughters. She is an e-book author, health and fitness columnist, and is also a Certified Natural Product Advisor and Weight Trainer. Can we say WOW.

Though being active has always been a priority to Kristine it was in 2008 after the birth of her first daughter that she really became serious about being fit. She found new motivation to get her body back in shape and stepped on stage after 7 short months of giving birth to place 4th in a fitness competition. WOW again Kristine! She really hopes to inspire other Moms to get back into shape despite the crazy schedule, and help people of all ages to stay motivated and positive to find a healthier life mentally and physically. I don’t know about you but I could use both reasons right about now!

I’m not going to lie, I LOVE food, I LOVE eating it, LOTS of it, only now I’m learning to LOVE LOTS of healthy foods so Kristine, thank you for making me see that cooking and preparing food doesn’t always have to be bad! The only thing I need a kick in the butt in is the working out department. Kristine talks about her complete story HERE from childhood until now and it was very inspiring. Kristine, I too lost a parent very young and watched my father battle lung cancer for 9 brutal months, I also kept the anger, emotions and frustrations in check by going to the gym. I used to wake at 5am and my dad would be sitting in his chair in the dark watching TV and he’d say “Good for you Tam…..going for a litle 1-2, 1-2. That’s what he called working out…..I remember it like it was yesterday. She talks about how much hard work and determination it took for her to get back out there after her first was born. “Skipping workouts and eating unhealthy were not an option” she says………I like that quote. So my last question I have left for you Kristine is how did you find the time to do it? I fell into such a hole after my first was born with PPD that I couldn’t get up to work out. Keep in mind I barley gained 10 lbs during both of my pregnancies, now with two the only time I get to myself I’m either cooking, prepping meals, cleaning, doing laundry or simply vegging out because mentally I need it. I’m one of those “Type A” people that if I can’t have a routine of working out I’d rather not even bother trying. With two kids I find it near impossible for anything to be routine. If you have any words of wisdom I’m ready, I’m 15 lbs from my goal weight, I just underwent a breast reduction that I waited very patiently for and I have one more week of recovery before I can work out. HELP! I’m totally checking out your WORKOUT section when I’m up and at em again!

Kristine writes “What I ate Wednesday” I love this, I love it because it’s made me see that I really DON’T eat bad, we eat a lot of the same things I think what I need to do is up my protein more ( like I thought I ate enough!) and my veggie intake. This is a great section if you need some examples of healthy snacks, for example her “better than store bought protein bars” I’m totally making these and I’m sure my husband will love them too. My butt has to get to the health store market to get these ingredients though I have most of them! Yay! Or how about her Cheesecake Protein Bars…….hello you had me at Cheesecake! OK seriously I’ve been working on this post for almost 2 hours because I’m obsessed with these recipes, while I text my best friend and husband all about it ha! Here are a few more, her Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Goat Cheese, Walnut and Cranberries has my name on it, my family loves pork, it’s something my daughter has actually been eating lately, however the kicker is I can never seem to cook it good unless I bake it in a bag! I’m going to give it a shot though. Soooooo I pinned a bunch of Kristine’s recipes and snacks, I’m also going to try her Healthy Hamburger Helper in hopes my kiddo will eat it.

Lets talk about what I did end up making shall we. I wanted something my daughter would eat, ends up she wouldn’t touch it. Pizza! Hello it’s pizza why would she not eat it! I loved it, my husband loved it, I loved that we weren’t eating bread! I even made her a corner without the roasted red peppers on it knowing she wouldn’t touch them however that was a fail. That’s ok, more for us! I highly recommend giving this a shot, I will be making it again and I was able to make the “Turkey Crust” before my husband went to pick up  my daughter and then I assembled everything and had it ready to pop in when he left.

Kristine’s: Pesto, Tomato and Spinach Meatza Pizza

Scroll down to see the recipe for the “Pesto Sauce” I made

I thought it had great flavor and was VERY filling as well. I also made my own Pesto Sauce as well, I know how loaded in fat the store brands are so I can’t get myself to actually buy a container so I’m experimenting on making my own, stay tuned a have a Pea Pesto coming out and this one is called a Spinach Pesto. I just experimented buy adding a cup of fresh spinach, 1 garlic clove, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, few walnuts, splash of lemon juice, salt & pepper. I added virgin olive oil as I went to make it the consistency I liked. Wala……spinach pesto folks!

Kristine, thank you thank you for allowing me to Feature you and Busy But Healthy. I’ll be returning for a lot of recipes and who knows maybe some advice! Connect with Kristine via Facebook or Twitter.