Monday, September 7, 2009

Day of Productivity

Today is my last day of freedom for awhile because I have some crazy weekends coming up. As a result I needed to be seriously productive. I woke up at 7, which I decided is the ideal time to wake up. It's light out and not too early, but still early enough to get a lot done. I hit the gym first to do some elliptical and a few of my PT exercises. Then I headed to my parents to spread out my stuff and get some serious work done.


I made a bunch of tutoring games on my computer and then set out to do some planning for the kindergarten kids for the week. I didn't come up with anything too great, but I am reading this fabulous book with a ton of kids games in it.


I am trying to incorporate a lot more fun and active activities into the regular school day in an effort to make my class more boy friendly. This is not to say that girls don't enjoy active games, or that my class is not boy friendly already, but I think school in general is more meant for "girls" and I want to try to change that the best I can this year. Hopefully it lasts even when the crazy academics that are now kindergarten take over in a few weeks.

When I got home tonight (after stealing my mom's food processor because we don't have one yet), I decided to cook almond crusted chicken that was in this month's issue of Body and Soul magazine. I have to admit I normally do not cook recipes from magazines because they always have SO many ingredients. However, this one only had a few ingredients: 1/2 cup roasted unsalted almonds, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 clove of garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon of course salt. Even a simple girl like me can handle that. All I had to do was mix the ingredient, put them in the food processor and then rub them on my chicken fillets.


I also added some mashed potato and carrots to make a full meal. Since I can't eat butter anymore, I make my mashed potatoes using chicken broth. They aren't QUITE as amazing this way but I still really like them and they are much more heathy.


I ended up really enjoying the chicken. If you are planning to try it, consider how much you like garlic because the recipe as I made it tastes a lot like garlic. You'll want to put less if you won't like that :)
I hope everyone had a great weekend, I'm off to go eat one of my delicious small portions of Edy's ice cream!

9 comments:

  1. You are so brave to teach such a young age group. I would not be able to do it! I'll stick with my junior high kiddos and their raging hormones!

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  2. Great idea to have ACTIVE games and activities! More teachers need to do that.

    Great recipe. I love simple and easy, yet delicious. I do love garlic :)

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  3. Kelly, I'd want to be in your class! I like active games and competing with boys. :D
    I've been on a garlic galore this past week, too. Your meal's looking good!

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  4. That looks so good! I love productive days!!! Go girl! ;)

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  5. I agree, 7 is a great time to wake up. Sounds like a productive day!

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  6. love the chicken recipe! what a great idea..

    i make my mashed potatoes with chicken broth too- i know they are not as creamy and rich tasting.. have you tried using smart balance in there instead?

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  7. way to be productive on a holiday! i would've been slack... oh wait, i was. :)

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  8. Yay for you for making learning FUN! I'm a firm believer that class is more meaningful and the lessons more lasting if the child is fully engaged...and what better way to get their attention than with FUN?!?! You GO!

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