I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached

I better write all this down RIGHT NOW while I'm thinking about it.

Today was my first day of core nursing classes (the ones that really count!).  It was also Gabe's first day of daycare!!  Turns out Mother Nature has a sense of humor and the wind chill was below zero when we left the house, oh so early, in the morning. 

We did get out the door only to forget Gabe's boots, which didn't matter because it was too cold to play outside at daycare but still bugged me.  We got Mike dropped off at work and headed to campus.  I got a good parking spot (benefit of being there at 7:30).  I hauled my backpack, laptop bag, Gabe, his snowsuit, and his backpack all inside the school. 

I dropped him off and he barely said bye to me!  He was the first one there so he went off and was busy playing right away with all the cool toys.

Then I skedaddled to my first class, Pharmacology, which was at 8am.  I get there and we sit around for awhile and at about 8:15 another instructor comes in and apologizes that we were supposed to get an email that there was no class today, that it starts NEXT Wed.  Grrr!!  So now I have 2 hours to kill on campus while I wait for my next class to start.  It was a long two hours.

The next class is Nursing Fundamentals, we get settled in, do the obligatory paperwork, and jump right in.  It was an alright intro and seems like it could be interesting.  It is basically a theory class about the profession of nursing (subtitled "How not to get sued" by me). 

I am done at noon and head over to the daycare to pick Gabe up.  When he sees me he immediately bursts in to tears because they were just starting lunch and I interrupted him LOL!!  There were three other kids there at that point, two girls and a boy.  They all waved and said hi.  I did finally get Gabe to calm down and we took his lunch to go. 

At home he tells me that it was a boring morning because he was by himself for most of it (I think the other kids came around 10).  He did enjoy playing in the muscle room, where they play when it is too cold outside.   He waffles between telling me he's glad he went and wanting to never go back again!

Monday we do it all over again, but only for the afternoon since there was a last minute schedule change by one of my instructors :/ So we'll be on campus together from 12:30-4 and then head right to pick up Mike. 

I have about 115 pages to read this week for Fundamentals, my online Psych class will probably start posting things tomorrow or Friday.  So I'm off and running! Although I won't really be running because my backpack weighs a ton and is already stuffed to the max!

(not)refried bean burritos

Yesterday I posted the (not)refried beans and today I am posting to show what I made with them! 

I made little freezer packs to take to class with me for lunch.  The tortillas I used are quite small so I put 4 into a package. 

Ingredients, I didn't take pictures of the package of beans full, sorry.  There are also other ingredients in the recipe which I linked back to yesterday too!  They are DELICIOUS!

Then I set up a little assembly line and put 1/4 cup of beans into each burrito

I added a dash of cheese (less than 1/4 of a cup, just a sprinkle really), and 1/4 cup of beans was a LOT in this size tortilla.  I might go up a size next time but I like the idea of eating a lot at lunch (4) and feeling like I splurged instead of eating one big burrito LOL.

Then I rolled them up and put them into Ziploc bags.  I labelled each bag with the contents, date, and nutrition info I like to keep track of.  Each pack of 4 burritos is 350 calories and 20g of protein (for ALL 4 combined!!)

I only had one package of tortillas, and I made a double batch of beans so I had leftovers.  I took them and put them into ziploc bags, wrote the date, the size of the package (2 cups) and nutrition info for 1/2 cup of beans (60 calories):

I lay them nice and flat (helps to keep the air out too) and then freeze them like that.  After they are frozen you can stand them up if you need to in the door of the freezer.  I did have another cup and a half left over but I put them in a bowl in the fridge for lunch tomorrow ;) I couldn't resist! 

These beans are super tasty and WAAAAAY better than anything you're going to eat canned, and better for you.  Total time I put in today to portion and package everything up was about half an hour.  I'm not going to say my calorie counts are perfect but they should be close, and everyone's recipes will vary depending on exactly what you put into your beans and what burritos you use.  So make sure you figure it out if you need to be counting calories. 

I will definitely be making these beans and the burritos again!  Thank you so much to Budget Bytes for paving the way for these recipes!!

Food I made!

I got all crafty (can you be crafty with food?) this week.  I've found some recipes I just must try this week before I go back to class next week.  So today I made (Not)Refried Beans.  They turned out marvelous!  They are tasty, I had to taste test to make sure, and look delicious too. 

Tomorrow they are going to go into some tortilla shells with a little cheese and then get frozen in two packs for my lunches for at school where I can pop them in the microwave.  I actually got the idea from another post by Budget Bytes where she made freezer burritos with store bought ingredients, so I figured I'd do it with homemade beans (which are SOO much yummier!) and next time I might even make the tortillas myself from one of her recipes too.

Freezer Burritos  and the Low Fat Flour Tortillas for next time.  So tomorrow I'll make my burritos and have tasty healthy lunches.  The tortillas I'm using are only 80 calories for 2 of them and they are whole wheat.  I'll add a little sprinkle of Mexican Style Cheese and be good to go for only about 300 calories for two of them. 

This week I'm also going to make my own English Muffins for breakfast sandwiches too.  I need to be prepared with foods for the weeks ahead when I'm going to be busy, lazy, frazzled and unable to think ahead well enough to make healthy tasty meals! 

I admit I go in spurts with trying new foods and recipes but since I'm on an upswing I figure I better take advantage of it and make as many things as I can to stuff in the freezer!  If you have any great recipes or blogs about food shoot them my way and I'll see what I can do.  I've already sampled Skinny Taste and she's fabulous, OBB is another one that I've tried a few but not many from, so spam me!