Weekly Menu

Greetings! Hope all is going well with all of my blog buddies! We had a fun week last week, Trevor had off the week for Spring Break so we just hung around the house. I am a big 'homebody' so I love doing this! The only down side was Paisley was sick with some sort of virus she had a fever almost the entire week, but she mostly slept. Its never fun when your baby is sick!! I had to take her to the hospital so they could draw blood and I had to give them a urine sample from her. When they drew her blood I cried right along with Paisley! I hated that I was letting my little baby be hurt, it was torture! The phlebotomist was a young boy, he looked about 18 and he didn't have any kids (I asked him) so I had a very hard time letting him poke my baby with a needle!! But we all came out ok with only a little bruise to show for it. 
On Friday and Saturday it was just me and the kids because my husband took a van full of people from our church to a healing crusade in Mexico. Every year the churches in the Southwest partner with our sister church in Mexico and put on a huge healing crusade and it is always a powerful time!  During the three days there were over 600 people saved and 200 miracles! It is always so great to see God working! 


Well here is the menu for the week! 


 Mon-I wasn't able to make the baked chicken last week so it was dinner tonight! 
Baked fryer whole chicken with steamed broccoli and baked potatoes. I made homemade gravy from the dripping and it was really good!!


Tues- Pork and vegetable kabobs with rice


Wed- The tortilla soup from the chicken carcass, I didn't do too good last week sticking to my menu so there are a few repeats! Sorry! 


Thurs- Eggplant lasagna with green tossed salad, I will be sure to get pictures of this one and post it. My camera has no batteries and no matter how many packs we buy the boys find them and put them into random toys so there are never any working batteries when we need them!!! But I will buy some and find a good hiding place for them!! 


Fri-Soup of some sorts, probably the chicken tortilla soup from last week. 


Sat- Naan personal pizza. These are really great, me and the kids actually had them this last Saturday too, its easy and fun to make together! I put peppers, sauteed onions and garlic, tomatoes and spinach on mine and it was really good!


Sun- Keeping this open for leftovers or going out 


Hope everyone has a good week and I will try to update soon! :) 

Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheesy Casserole

A low carb creamy dish perfect for dinner

Minutes to Prepare: 10

Minutes to Cook: 15

Number of Servings: 5

Ingredients

Cauliflower, raw, 2.5 cup (1" pieces) Chopped 

Broccoli, raw, 0.5 cup, chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste 

Sour Cream, .5 cup 

Cream of Mushroom Soup, .25 cup 

Cream of Chicken Soup, .25 can

Shredded 2% Mexican Four Cheese blend, 0.5 cup 

Stove Top Stuffing Mix, 3 Tbls. unprepared

Directions

Boil 3/4 cup water, add cauliflower and broccoli boil for 5-6 mins until tender. Strain. Put into 9x9 dish add salt and pepper.

Mix sour cream, both soups and half of the cheese in a pan until bubble and hot. Pour mixture over the vegetables and top with remaining cheese and stove top. Put in oven and cook at 350 for about 5-10 mins until the cheese on top is melted.

Serving Size: Makes about 5- 1/2 cup servings

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 5
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 124.3

• Total Fat: 8.7 g
• Cholesterol: 17.4 mg
• Sodium: 313.9 mg
• Total Carbs: 6.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.5 g
• Protein: 5.3 g

Great Quote!

I found this quote and thought it was great! This sums up what I have thinking!!

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff:

 “Your real goal? Live the healthiest life you can enjoy, not the healthiest life you can tolerate. Yes, if you have weight to lose, you’ll have to make changes. But if you change so far from who you are and what you enjoy, odds are that it’s not a sustainable plan. Don't aim for your so-called "ideal" weight; instead aim for what I refer to as your "best" weight, which is the weight you reach when living the healthiest life you can actually enjoy.”

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/blog/the-healthiest-food-in-the-world#ixzz1t4vWs9gt

Weekly Menu

Monday- BBQ chicken, roasted asparagus and baked potato. Tuesday- Chicken fajitas mmmm.... no tortilla for me and I will limit the cheese and topp'ns! I will probably end up making it a salad. Wednesday- Shrimp and Quinoa (a new recipe, this one I will feature, the last new recipe I did didn't turn out so good, I have the pictures and will still post it but it wasn't that great!) Thursday- Bake chicken (whole fryer chicken) steamed cauliflower and broccoli with a pasta-roni for the family, none for me! Friday- Baked or grilled fish with a sauteed vegetable medley of squash, onions, peppers and zucchini and rice Saturday- Chicken tortilla soup, use the leftover carcass from Thursday. If you don't save your leftover chicken carcass you should they make great soups!! Sunday-Leftovers!! With all this food there are bound to be leftovers one of the days and those are easy!

Trip Review

Well back to the desert! Our trip was really fun and relaxing, we got to see some of our good friends and fellow pastors from the area and that is always such a joy! It was great to hear some preaching too, as a Pastor's wife you personally get sermons far and few between and a sermon with your husband sitting next to you is rare!! so that was a high point too! My husband is such a wonderful man and I appreciate him and his thoughtfulness! He surprised me with shopping money (woo hoo!!) and put such thought and plan into our trip, he planned special dinners (our favorite sushi) and things to make our time together special! He even skipped the 100th anniversary game of the Red Sox at Fenway Park to go shopping with me, now you know that is love!!! Thanks babe! The only downside of the weekend is Paisley got sick while we were gone, a sick kids is never fun. I took her to the doctor today and they didn't really say what was wrong just a bug I think I have a follow up appointment on Friday.   SO I have to say that I am really surprised about my weight after our long weekend in Redlands, I weighed twice just to be sure I was reading it right lol, I was down two pounds. I really did try to keep my food the same as what I do at home, but with my calorie limit I went over, then under, then over again. All my numbers for carbs, protein and fat where all over the board and everywhere in between! California law requires that you put calorie information on menus and order boards so that was helpful but some things we did eat (like the hotel breakfast) didn't have it. I tried to keep to my usual basic breakfast, they offered eggs cooked to order so I did an omelet with veggies and small amount of cheese. I took the nuts with me for snacks and then at lunch I tired to stick to salads and sandwiches (which I would only eat half of the bread). Even though they list the calories you still aren't sure what is in the rest of the nutrients and that is a challenge when you are trying to keep an eye on those as well.  But overall I think it was a great experience and good test for my new acquired information. I did splurge a couple of times but I tried to keep them healthy as well, a skinny latte rather than a frappuccino. So I am hoping to continue my downward trend, I think this week will be a challenge because sometimes I think that the weight I am reflecting is actually a week or so behind me? Not sure if that is true or not but it makes sense to me. Any thoughts?   I have to add, I know under normal circumstances the week before last would of been the week I stopped and retuned to my old habits. It was a difficult week and I was feeling like I was making no progress, but I pushed through it and am going to stick with this! So thanks to Julie, my mom and Micah you are all great motivation!

Weekly menu and trips!

I have a partial menu for this week because we are going to be going out of town to Redlands, CA for a Pioneer Rally (for church). God bless Julie who has sent me a whole email on how to survive vacations and navigate the waters of junk food and restaurants! My goal is to continue to lose weight even though it is an upset in my daily routine. I am very excited to go be going out of town, we are leaving the kids here with a good friend and will get to have three days to ourselves! If you don't count conference we haven't had an 'us' trip since the December before Paisley was born.  

 So I have to apologize, I said I would feature my Eggplant Lasagna but unfortunately my camera was acting up and I didn't get any pictures (but it was very good!!). Then I said I would feature my very healthy carrot cake, but we were taking it to an Easter dinner and the dinner didn't work out so I didn't make it. SO they didn't make it to the blog! 

Monday- Leftover beef stew, I got this recipe off of skinnytaste.com, I made it Sunday in the crockpot so when we got home from church it would be ready. I spiced it up a little with red pepper flakes and it tasted much better with a little kick. 

Tues- Island Chicken, a new recipe...I'll let you know how it goes. My family will have rice with it, I'll skip that part. 

Wed- Ground beef burritos, I'll skip the tortillas and eat it as a salad. Topped with sour cream and fresh homemade guacamole! Use salsa as a dressing to keep the calories low. 


Thur-Sat out of town!! :)


Sunday- I'll just throw something easy together, like tuna sandwiches.

Dancing

 Yet again we've had a busy week, I should be cleaning right now, but I will take a minute to update! Its been going good! I am plugging along learning the steps to the new dance I'm learning 'called eating right and exercise'. I have officially lost 10 lbs now! YAH! I live in a perpetual state of sore muscles, but that is a great feeling of accomplishment!

Dancing with daddy! 

 During this process I can't help but think of my dad. A couple of years ago he took up dancing: ballroom, salsa, rhumba, line, your name it and he has learned it...with the exception of exotic, lol! I went with him a couple of times and I was so surprised at the wonderful talent that he possessed (I defiantly didn't inherit the talent of rhythm from him), he knew all the right steps but not only that he made it look so easy and good!!  With this new lifestyle I can't help but liken it to a dance. First you must learn all the new steps, what you should and shouldn't eat and that
 exercise is important. Then you must be sure that those steps are in the right order, watch what and how much you are eating (again this is where I stress livestrong.com) and how to exercise right. Then you must put it all together and practice, practice, practice to eventually produce a beautiful dance. My dad didn't just start one day and was good, he put may hours and even money into learning to dance right and making it good! The same is with eating right and exercising, you have to make time for it you must make it fit into your life and sometimes sacrifice for it. Another important thing is be sure that you are dancing the right dance. If I thought that I knew how to ballroom dance but had never been taught or made a effort to learn it would be a disaster!  You must ensure that what you are producing is in step with the rest of you the dancers around you, you can be beautiful and float across the floor with your stunning ballroom dance but if its what your idea of ballroom is you'll be crashing into everyone around you and causing chaos!  This where I was before the start of my journey, l had these preconceived notions about health and what was good for me, but the 'dance' wasn't producing the results I wanted I was still 30 lbs overweight! I would start off across the room and step on toes and hit 5 people on the way and eventually come crashing down! I came to realize that I needed to learn the correct steps and start from square one. I'm still practicing and there are times that I slip and fall, like my restaurant disaster last week, but I can get up and try again and slowly it will come together. So I urge you consider your dance and if what you are dancing right now doesn't work and you aren't achieving your health goals then maybe it's time to learn a new dance and maybe get some dancing lessons!  

I'm a slacker!

WELL I've officially been a blogger slacker this week! Sorry! Its been a very busy last week, I am coming to realize that I just live a busy life! My usual time to blog is around midnight because it is me time but I have been tired because of working out so I've been going to bed earlier, a little bit anyway! 

 Lets see what to talk about first...my workouts. They have been going good! I've been doing three days of weight training, Julie (my sister in-law and also health mentor) emails me every Monday a workout schedule for the week. I break them up with two or three days of cardio, I use the elliptical or I have been walking/jogging with some friends at the park. Its been fun meeting, between the three of us there are 7 kids so we let them play while we circle them on the outer rim of the playground. We do intervals of walking for a minute and a half then jogging for one minute, we do eight intervals for a total of 25 mins so including the cool down it's a 30 min workout. It works great because I HATE running but it is just enough to get your heart rate up without killing you! 

 Here are my meals for the week, I know it's Thursday and a little late but better late than never!

 Mon- Spicy chicken and squash soup (a made up recipe, I had leftover chicken from my baked rosemary and okra the week before the chicken was really good! On a side note the okra was GROSS!! it had the consistency of snot! I seriously had a hard time finishing dinner because it made me so queasy! I have tried and liked fried okra but that isn't too healthy so if you have a good okra recipe that keeps it from becoming something that mimics a product out of your nose, let me know! :P )

See the NASTY snot strings!!! BLAH! 

Tues- Grilled burgers outside they were half ground beef and ground lean turkey. The weather here is so nice!!  We set up our pool and I planted some flowers with the kids. It gets HOT here in the summer like in the 110s so spring is our time to enjoy the weather. Surprisingly this actually 10 degrees coolers than our last city, Lake Havasu the record high was 128 and last summer we reached 122 on one day! Good thing I love the desert because God keeps putting us there! 

S'mores..enjoying the wonderful weather! 

Wed- Crockpot BBQ pork. I actually had a spinach salad with chicken because I was really close on my calories. My family had the sandwiches and said they were good!

Thursday- Tilapia with cauliflower. I am going to have my husband grill the fish and I'll steam the cauliflower  (mmmmm....)

Friday- Leftovers...I have a lot in my fridge and need to use them up. 

Sat- Easter Dinner with a couple in church. I am in charge of dessert and I am going to make a very healthy carrot cake...I'll feature this next week! 

Sun-Chicken, Broccoli and potato. I usually keep this one pretty general because if we end up going out or having leftovers I can move it to another day. 

Alrightly gotta go, but I will post about my Eggplant lasagna that I made last week later! Asta!