It’s Tuesday. That means it’s a magic basket full of snacks for me and one or more of the offspring. Today’s basket of packed goodness was for me and Ava. I was unexpectedly assisting in her homeschooling class today. Maxine stayed behind with Aunt Ellen while Ava and I forged ahead.

I was of course excited to dig into my MamaBar and give it a real trial run. (i.e., not sampling it over the food processor bowl.) I chowed this puppy moments before getting out of the car to tackle a room full of 5 and 6 year olds for three hours. I needed every last ounce of coconut oil.

Dinner tonight was inspired by Justine from the Confessions of a SAHM. Curried Squash and Apple Soup.

It all started with a lone buttercup squash I snagged the other day. The produce manager told me buttercup is a very sweet squash, so I knew the perfect recipe to use it in when I saw Justine’s post yesterday.

Halved, de-seeded and roasted with a sweet potato at 350 for about 50 minutes. When I could easily stick a fork through the skin, it was done.

What jumped out at me with this recipe was the addition of an apple! A large peeled crispin apple, sauteed with onion in extra virgin olive oil until soft.

Squash and potato removed from it’s flesh, into the pot with the apple and onion and a couple cups of vegetable broth. A tablespoon or so of cinnamon and curry powder, and then cooked for a few minutes before moving the entire contents into the food processor. I usually leave some veggies in the pot to make the soup chunky, but decided today to go wild and puree the whole pot.

This combination of flavors was awesome, the sweet with savory was so good!

Served by candle light with some garlic hummus on toasted Ezekiel bread with salsa.

So since tonight’s dinner was inspired by Justine, the queen of confessions – here’s mine.

My little calorie math project last night has me totally contemplating calorie counting again – or at the very least food journaling – for the month of November. For the past year now I’ve wanted to lose the last 10 “vanity pounds”, as Jillian Michaels puts it. I was reminded last night of how well calorie counting works. Food journaling was what worked for me like nothing else ever had before. It allowed me to bust through my plateau and go on to lose an additional 23 lbs in two and a half months. Writing it down and seeing the numbers is like balancing your check book. There’s no denying the numbers when they are there in front of you. It worked great for me and I’m suddenly feeling motivated to do it again. I got down to the upper 120’s in the summer of 2008 and have been hanging out in the low 130’s for almost a year now. My clothes still fit but they fit better when I was in the 120’s – and I would love to get back there again. It’s what I’ve wanted for a year now! After trying everything Raw Food Detox Diet and Thrive, the bottom line is that I need to pay closer attention to how many calories I eat. At the end of a day, it’s all about the math. Calories in have to be less than calories out and the weight will come off. If I want to see results I’ve got to keep track.

I hesitate to post this. It’s embarrassing. But it’s real so here it is. There’s no denying that it works – so I’m going to do it. I’m going to food journal for a month and see where I end up 4 weeks from now.

Confession over. Time to hit publish.

• Laundry Catch 22
• Change of Plans
• A Day of Calorie Counting

Insomnia struck early this morning from about 2 until 4am. I slept in and got up when the girls did sometime before 8. I did yoga at home this morning with only a few interruptions for granola bars and one bonked head. A big shout out to Caillou today for baby sitting for about 40 minutes while mama got her downward dog on.

Caillou is not so great at preventing five year old’s from smashing their heads into things. Oh well, what can I say. He’s four – and he didn’t charge me.

Thanks to some suggestions from Yogi Averie, I stepped up the intensity today and kicked it up a notch from my usual Gentle Hatha classes to Yoga for Runners and Morning Flow.

Yoga for Runners is serious stuff – I’m still wondering if Dawnelle might be a yogi masochist.

After a myriad of deep twists and forward bends, visions of detoxing danced in my head. Might as well come full circle and finish it up with some green juice.

Ava asked to make fresh apple juice FIRST, so she wouldn’t get any green in her juice. We hit up the apple orchard yesterday, one more time before they close for the season! I think we picked every last apple off the trees yesterday. Or at least you might think we did given the 17 lbs of apples we brought home. At $.40 a lb just try and tell me you wouldn’t do the same thing!

The girls won’t drink green juice or green smoothies, but I figure fresh apple juice is a step in the right direction. They are eager to help and be a part of the juicer action and that gives me hope for green juice in their future.

Cinderella gets jazzed up and puts her arms in the air from fresh squeezed juice! Heeeyyyy…. hooooooeeee….

Ummm Cinderella? I think you’ve got something on your blouse there… in a very interesting location.

Now it’s my turn. My favorite combo!

Nice and green! Arms in the air! Whoops don’t spill!

And yes, we do drink out of mason jars. I got tired of broken glasses – mason jars are sturdy! Plus I get a new glass free with every jar of almond butter I buy! Beats a toy in the bottom of cereal box any day.

Still in a calorie math frame of my from last night, I decided to figure out how many calories were in my green juice from today. I’ve always been curious, and I know some of you have asked me before too and I didn’t know the answer.

Based on the weight from my food scale and info from calorie count:

Small head of romaine: 50
Whole cucumber: 45
Apple: 110
Spinach, about 2 cups: 20
Lemon: 17
Ginger: 20

Grand total? 262

These are the numbers on the fruit and vegetables themselves, I wonder if it actually might be a little less without the fiber? If so, probably minimally.

This made a lot of juice. Two 12 oz servings – so that would be 131 calories per 12 oz glass. About 87 calories for an 8oz glass. Now we know. Don’t hold me to these numbers in a court of calorie law please. I’m tired! I was up in the middle of the night! Leave a little room for error. Leave a lot of room for green juice rawesomeness.

• Here and Now
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
• Warm Fruit Cereal