It's Monday....

It's Monday and boy have I been busy!! Last week was killer on us as a family in regards to time and with our food plan. As with most things, I learned what I need to do to avoid this again. Coming up next weekend, I am seeing a freezer weekend where I can prepare several meals that can be pulled out in a moments notice. This is a must now. I am happy to say that fast food was never an option, which makes me feel good. But the meals we had at home were sparce and contained lots of stuff that were just as bad. Lesson learned.

In hopes to put last week's craziness behind us, I knew that menu planning had to amazing this week. Nothing expensive but I needed to really keep in mind what we were doing this week and keep in mind the time that I REALLY had to fix meals. I also had to get myself organized as soon as groceries were bought so that items were still around when we actually fixed the meals. I know that doesn't happen at anyone else's houses right?

Here is our menu this week:
Monday - Country Club Chicken (left overs from last week that I froze for last night, they didn't get eaten last night)
Tuesday - Quesadilla's  with refried beans  (Chase's pick for dinner this week )
Wednesday - Roast Chicken with smashed red potatoes and green beans
Thursday - Caprese pasta ....making this one up.....penne pasta with grape tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzerella with a balsamic sauce....having a salad with this one
Friday - Grilled veggie flatbread sandwiches with sweet potato fries or tortellini soup (can't decide)
Saturday - Chicken salad sandwiches with probably sweet potato fries
                  Steaks with red potatoes and salad

My grocery list this week was almost all produce. I bought 5 processed items. A super WOOHOO on our part.

Earlier I said I wanted to get more organized because this is what is going to keep us on this path to well being. Here are some things I did today when I got some time. I prepped any veggies or fruit I could. I washed all of the fruit.

Grapes taking a bath


I do wash all my fruit with a vinegar wash because I read somewhere a while ago that it kills any spores that might be on the fruit that create the mold you see. I give them a bath in vinegar and water. Rinse them off really good and then lay them on the towel like pictured above. Then I do pat them dry as best I can or just let the sit out for a while.

After I wash everything then I take a look at my menu for the week to determine what could be sliced/diced for the week. This makes cooking so much easier. I also determined what foods I could cut up into snackable portions for the kids and I. Here is a trick I have found that helps me stick to eating healthy. I cut up all sorts of veggies and put them in a tupperware for the fridge. Fruit is always easy to grab quickly and eat. Veggies aren't as accessible for some reason. This helps me get them in my diet and not just eat fruit.


My other tip was obvious but still warrants a mention. If it isn't in the house, you don't eat it.  Realizing that we are in desperate need of a food makeover in this house was the best thing that has happened. Not only for our waist band but for the long run of living longer and much healthier! So as we lose those items in the house that are not as healthy for us, I am not replacing them. Therefore, we aren't eating them. I was very proud of myself this weekend for my portion control. I still enjoyed all the delicious food including red velvet cake but I didn't "want" to overeat. It was a struggle to see our kids basically gorge them self on food we no longer had but that they still want. I am hoping this gets easier as we try to really live by example and talk about food. I don't want them growing up with those same unhealthy habits that Ryan and I both have/had. Too much of a struggle and something I don't want my girls especially to be "addicted" to.

Today I also fixed our bread. I didn't do this last week and Chase ended up eating school lunch all week, AHHHH!!



I tried another recipe from here . I followed her recipe fairly close. I cut the recipe in half. I didn't have spelt flour so I just added a cup of white and then a cup of wheat to make the dough reach the right consistency. I also added flax seeds and pumpkin seeds at the end.  I am really hoping it turns out good.

I think that is all for this entirely too long post for a Monday. Thanks for bearing with me and my craziness!! Here is something that is making my house smell fabulous and I just soak it all in when they are in bloom, lilacs. I think Heaven smells like lilacs and bread fresh out of the oven. Just sayin'.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!

What's on our plates this week

Whenever I make the menu for the week the first thing I do is take a look at what activities we have going on. This was something that bit me in the rear end last week! I just made the menu last week and it was hard to get some of the dinners in before we had to leave for things. This is what our week looks like this week:
1. Ryan gone for a few nights
2. My mom coming for a night
3. Baseball game that we will have to leave the house at 5pm to get there in time
4. leaving to go visit Ryan's parents

Ok so when I see that here is how I interpret it for the menu:
1. we can basically eat whatever we can find around the house and freezer. This helps me clean out old items that need to be eaten. I don't have these days very often because I really like to have a meal on the table for Ryan (and all of us, really) after a long day of work and school.
2. I like to fix good meals for my mom when she is here. It is my way of saying thank you for all those meals she served me.
3. Whatever I fix this night (which happens to be the night mom is here so I want it to be good:) plus it needs to be good food for Chase to help him last through the game) it needs to be either fast or easy to prepare ahead of time.
4. Yay, for going to visit others! I don't have to fix anything or buy any groceries for these few days!! I do however try hard to plan a meal that can be quickly fixed or thrown in the oven on Sunday when we get home. There is nothing worse than driving home to find you have nothing to eat and you have to go grocery shopping.

So now I start planning:

Monday- Eat out of the fridge/freezer/pantry night
Tuesday - Country club chicken casserole with asparagus on the side
Wednesday - Enchiladas with rice
Thursday - leftover night
Friday/Saturday/Sunday - Country club chicken casserole....I don't normally do this but hey I can make double on Tuesday afternoon and stick it in the freezer. Then it will be ready on Sunday.

Meal planning takes a couple weeks (or months) to get control of. And as much as I have learned and know, there are some weeks that just sneak up on me. I am hoping to have a stock my freezer weekend in a couple weekends. Between baseball and end of school stuff that is quickly on the horizon, I know having some meals that are ready to go will help us stay on track! Another trick that I do quite a bit is having a Papa Murphy's pizza (or two) in the freezer. I really do like P.M.'s for a quick dinner. They even have little pizza kits for the kids. I pull those out when we are having something that I know they won't like.

My grocery bill this week was $90 between Aldi's and Hyvee. And really it was about $50 but with Easter being this weekend, we splurged a little for dinner tomorrow night. We are having yummy fajitas with black beans!! Throw in a cute Easter bunny cake, I just love holidays!!


Here are my kiddos last Easter. I can't wait to take some pics tomorrow to show just how big they are getting. I love watching them grow!

I hope everyone has a Hoppy Easter!

Sigh...

I knew that when we decided as a family that healthy eating was a main goal of ours it was going to be hard. But I figured with my planning skills and my desire to get my body back, all would be good. Then last weekend hit. We have taken the winter off from sports of any kind and had gotten used to weekends at home. We had gotten used to week nights where all I had to worry about was what time Ryan would be getting home. Then baseball started and I knew it was going to get hectic. I knew what tournament weekends were like. Well, I knew what they were like when we were eating whatever we wanted to to make life easy. Now I know that this change in our way of thinking about food is hard.


Fresh out of the oven, white bread. I tried a new recipe this week and still haven't found the perfect one. Will try another one next week.

This weekend was jammed packed full of back to back games, through in a funeral that was 75 miles away, two very independent girls with cement to play on

What? Are you talking about me?


, a brand new team to get to know, and two very nervous parents about how this weekend was all going to play out. But we made it through it with help from new friends on the team and our wonderful babysitter, who watched the girls on Saturday night so that we could watch our son pitch the BEST GAME OF HIS LIFE!! Ok enough of the whining here is what I learned:

1. Buying crappy snacks just to tie over your younger kiddos doesn't mean that you are in the clear for being allowed to watch the game. Wrong. Buying cheap, processed, loaded with sugar- snacks just means they will be back for more in about 3..2..1..yep about that long. I will not be buying these snacks again. Period. I have instructed my husband of the same. From now on grapes, carrots, apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, or popcorn will be our snacks of choice at the game.

2. Going out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory is awesome. Yep, I said it. I love eating out, especially this heavenly place. And yes I know exactly how much fat is in majority of their dishes. But the thing is we haven't eaten there in almost a year. It was a great treat. And we halved our entree's before we even started eating. Well Ryan did. I had their fish tacos, grilled, with black beans and rice. I didn't eat the rice because I am weird like that. But ate the two whole tacos, the black beans, and the "meat" out of the other two tacos I had left. Basically I left two lonely and empty corn tortillas laying on my plate. No, no corn tortillas I don't want you no more. I loved leaving there full but happy with the choices that I made. And yes, we had cheesecake. It was delish and worth every last gram of fat that I have happily walked off on the eliptical.

3. Meal planning goes out the window when you don't have a weekend to get the meals prepared. By that I mean, if your week is going to be jam packed with practice, a baseball game, previewing the sex ed video for your oldest (ahhh!!!), having a fine arts fair that someone is performing in, and then having good friends over for a bbq on Friday....then the weekend before said crazy week has to be when you prepare the food. Lesson learned. Said food was not prepared for said week because my butt was too tired to do that on Sunday night after all of our baseball games. sigh......

So with that learning our new menu for next week will be different than this week. I am wanting some easier meals that can either be made ahead of time or can be thrown in the crock pot. It looks like a realitively calm week but that always means craziness is just around the corner. The best dish we have had so far this week was Monday nights meal: Portobello mushrooms grilled with basil balsamic pasta.

This was yummy. Just throw some balsamic, olive oil and garlic on the mushrooms (gill side up) and marinate for about 30 minutes to an hour. Cook them on the grill until they are done to your liking. We did about 10 minutes.

Cook your corkscrew pasta and when you are about to dump it all in the colander to strain, throw in a handful of spinach. Give it a quick stir then strain it. Run some cold water over it if you want. In your serving bowl put in a 1/2 cup of reduced balsamic vinegar, some dried oregano, pinch of salt and pepper, and about 1/4 cup of chopped basil. Throw in your pasta and give it a good stir. It was delish. And the basil totally overpowers the spinach, so even my hubby who hates spinach didn't mind it so much. Give it a try.

Here is my latest craft project because you know I don't have enough going on. I am attempting to make my oldest girlie a quilt for her 5th birthday.

It is going to be a hexie quilt. I have made 4 "blocks" so far like those pictured. I don't have a clue how many more I will have to make, probably lots! But that is ok. It will be great in the end.

Tomorrow I will have our menu for next week. I want to have a few new recipes for next week so I will have those posted or linked up as well.

Happy Wednesday!

I promise...

I just wanted to post really quick that I will be updating a few things tomorrow. We had a crazy weekend of baseball games and beautiful weather, which meant I have a ton of cleaning to do today. Oh and about 400 baseball pics to go through and edit. Tomorrow I want to talk about my grocery list this week and what I learned from this crazy weekend in regards to food. I also want to show off the hexie quilt I started for Ella's birthday. Lots of work but I am soooo proud of it so far!!
Now, I'm off to pop my bread in the oven so we can have sandwiches this week :)


Happy Monday!!