New year and new menus

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas with family and friends, we sure did! One of my favorite gifts this year is a personalized cookbook from my Aunt Pattie. She took all kinds of healthy recipes from different places and then catorgorized them into 5 sections for ease. My ambitous brain wheels started turning and I have decided to take on a new project. Project get healthy is what I have just now decided to call it. PGH for short. So here's what I was thinking, the book has a large main dish section so why not use at least 3 of those recipes in my meal plan each week?! I can combine the cookbook idea with the quick fix meal show on food network and maybe just maybe I'll have enough motivation to stick with it long enough to see some real weight loss! I'll try to track my progress each week on blogger - with the hope that I'm not setting myself up for failure. I have also decided to just go in order of the recipes in the book so that I don't get too bogged down with choices. With that said it looks like our first week will be a week of chicken. I think I'll get a great big package at the store and do what Robin Miller does and fix it all at the same time then just freeze it for the rest of the week. I'll try to find similar recipes online so that I can add links in the hopes that someone else may want to go along with my crazy idea, or maybe just try one or two of the recipes. Alot of my other meal ideas will be from the wonderful women/men who visit the Org Junkie and share their meal plans, and alot will come from my favorite blogger POW!  Those aren't the only websites I'll search to gather new recipes and great ideas, but they are the ones I frequent most.

I guess in order to see if this will work I should give a general idea of my size now and then add a new picture each week or maybe monthly to track progress - you all will know if I fall off the wagon if there aren't any pictures for a while. I would post my weight, but I'm not that brave yet, let's just say, I'm not at a healthy weight right now. If this works I'll post my begining weight and ending weight. Now to find a picture.......

Well here it is, me and my girls. I'm curious now looking at the picture what was going through my head when I got dressed that morning! Anyway, this is a starting point, maybe my fashion will improve as my weight goes down. And I suppose I should give something more concrete for a before reference, I'll go with size of pants - I am now in a size 18, and I'm 5'4 ...not healthy.

Ok now onto the actual meal plan for the end of this week and next week! All of the junk/holiday food has to be gone by the time next week starts so in order to get rid of the 6 packages of cream cheese, 4 lbs of shredded cheddar, cake mixes etc. I'll be making sweets and treats and having the girls over! I'll include those links too.

Wednesday ~ leftovers take 2! sweet potato casserole repurposed and Restaurant-Style-Hashbrown-Casserole

Thursday ~ Cheeseburger-Quiche and fries

Friday ~ out to dinner

Saturday ~ blackeyed peas, cabbage and cornbread

Sunday ~  Italian-Rice-Pie and salad

Monday ~ Chicken-and-Artichoke-Pizza 

Tuesday ~ Black-Bean-and-Couscous-Salad I'll be adding chicken and spinach too!

Wednesday ~ sandwiches and veggies and ranch

Thursday ~ Southwestern-Rice

Friday ~ Turkey picadillo wraps turkey picadillo

Saturday ~ left overs?

So there it is!  I will be posting updates each week as to how each of the recipes tastes and any alterations I make.  I hope you all find your new year full of blessings! 

cooking, cleaning, and getting ready to head outa town!

So this week has been jammed packed with things to do, unexpected and expected alike.  I am up to my eyeballs in to do lists with no check marks, my blog included...  We will be headed out of town this Friday and won't be back until Christmas eve!  My week has also been cut short cooking wise because my Dad has been in town and taking us out to dinner, Yay for Dad!!! I will be back tracking my blog to Monday, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. 

Monday ~ Poppy-Seed-Chicken, green beans, rolls and icebox cheese cake with blueberries

Tuesday ~ Out to eat :)

Wednesday ~ Soup and Sandwiches

Thursday ~ Cola-Pork-Chops (new recipe for me, I'll be following suggestions from other reviewers), serving over rice with purple hull peas and carrots

Friday - Christmas eve ~ Out of town

Remember This December, That love weighs more than gold!    ~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

healthy between the holidays

This time of year can be a daily calorie fest from Thanksgiving to New years.  That's why this year I'm going to attempt the near impossible and plan out healthy meals in between each holiday, and I'm starting this week.  For more meal plans visit Orgjunkie.

Monday - Turkey spaghetti and salad

Tuesday - Meat-Pie-Tourtiere green beans

Wednesday - Chicken salad sandwiches, chips and fruit

Thursday - PW Quesadillas and black beans

Friday - Healthy-Crockpot-Chicken and steamer veggies

Saturday - F.F.Y./C.O.R.N. *

*For those of you who don't yet know, FFY is fend for yourself and CORN is clean out the fridge night. 



And regardless of what else you put on, WEAR LOVE. 

 It's your basic, all purpose garment.

  Never be without it. 

Col. 3:14

Harvest time, Halloween, and 2 beautiful zebras

So with Halloween behind us and Thanks Giving on it's way I have lots on my mind but first!  Before Halloween I decided to have pictures of my girls taken by a wonderful photographer Erin Walker at imagine photographi. She had a cool fall promo going and so I dressed the girls in their Halloween garb and away we went. Here are a few of the beautiful pictures that came out of a wonderful afternoon.

We haven't picked up the girl's Halloween pictures from Walgreens yet, but next week I'll get those up.  Next week's blog should be adorned with a the cutest cow and prettiest 9 year old Taylor Swift you've ever seen. 

Without further ado, my meal plan for the week:

Monday ~ Awesome-Slow-Cooker-Pot-Roast, green beans and oven-roasted-red-potatoes-with-rosemary-and-garlic

Tuesday ~ Chicken-Flautas, Mexican rice, refried beans and lime/cumin creme and not-yo-mamas-banana-pudding

Wednesday ~ Spaghetti and meatballs, salad and rolls

Thursday ~ Left Over buffet

Friday ~ Chicken-Pot-Pie and possibly this lemon cake

Saturday ~ soup and sandwiches or something else super easy.

I'm tired already! Someone put me in bed and then wake me in 2 hours with a lovely brunch and coffee!  ....Pwahahahahahaha!!!!! Boy I'm dreamin' now! 

Have a blessed week everyone.  

Taco Salad Recipe

As promised here is the taco salad recipe with pictures I blogged about in MPM.

Here's what you'll need!

1.5 lb ground beef


1 package taco seasoning

3/4 cup water

2 cans rinsed, drained kidney beans

1 small onion diced

1/2 head of iceburg lettuce chopped

2 medium tomatoes chopped

1/4 bag taco chips (I use cheese Dorritos) crunched up - just put them in a gallon size ziplock and roll them with a rolling pin a few times.

3/4 bottle of Thousand Island Dressing - just go with me on this.



Directions:

Dice your onion and set aside.
Brown and drain your ground beef,

add to it the package of taco seasoning, water (I ended up using about 3/4 of a cup of water)

and onions, allow to cook 5 minutes untill all of the beef is saturated in seasony goodness, set it aside to cool a bit.



















Next pull out the biggest bowl you have and your chopping board, chop lettuce, tomatoes and throw 'em in the bowl.

T
















Throw in your kidney beans,

cheese and

chips.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gently toss these ingriedients together.

Add your ground beef and onion mixture and the Thousand Island (trust me you won't regret it)

Mix it all together and enjoy!

This is also good cold the next day.

Whatever the week holds is His plan.

My beautiful babies.

So I sat down this weekend and began this blog - I got as far as the title (which by the way I changed) and then was distracted.  That happens quite frequently around our house.  There was a lot going on this weekend, a 6 hour round trip drive with 2 tweens and an infant on Saturday to a wedding shower, church and a visit to Granny (who had fallen and broken her hip last week) and of course we had to prepare for the week to come - this is an ordeal for those of you who have kids and lack orginization like myself understand there's a special kind of madness that can ensue...  Even with all of the chaos I still managed to plan out my grocery list and meal plan, I just didn't get it posted to blogger or Orgjunkie!  So without further ado, here is our menu, sorry it's so late!

Sunday - We ate out!

Monday - Chicken patties, salad and oven fries (this is was my easy throw it together night)

Tuesday - Chili I didn't follow this recipe exactly, although based on the reviews I'm sure it is wonderful just the way it's written.  I added 2 cans of chili beans and 1 can of red kidney, also I ommited the white sugar. We also added a dollop of sour cream and some grated cheddar cheese - YUM!

Wednesday - Oooooh Wednesday... sucha sad, sad story. We were supposed to have honey garlic chicken, and boy we would have, except for one fatal flaw in my plan, I didn't PLUG IN the crock pot!!! So instead we had sandwiches and salad. I pouted for a while over the loss of my yummy chicken dinner.  The dogs LOVED it.  *tear, sniff, sniff* I did however pull out some precooked, cubed chicken and remade the sauce for this chicken and threw it in the skillet for 10 minutes and it was pretty darn good! So I will be saving the recipe for another day.

Thursday -  Taco Salad (recipe to follow) *family favorite!

Friday - F.F.Y.*

Saturday - Breakfast for dinner, eggs, maple sausage, biscuits, and fruit!

*Fend For Yourself

My Mom's taco salad:
I'll try to remember to do a photo recipe tonight when I make this.

1.5 lb ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
3/4 cup water
2 cans rinsed, drained kidney beans
1 small onion diced
1/2 head of iceburg lettuce chopped
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1/4 bag taco chips (I use cheese Dorritos) crunched up - just put them in a gallon size ziplock and roll them with a rolling pin a few times.
3/4 bottle of Thousand Island Dressing - just go with me on this.

Directions:

Dice your onion and set aside.
Brown and drain your ground beef, add to it the package of taco seasoning, water and onions, allow to cook 5 minutes untill all of the beef is saturated in seasony goodness, set it aside to cool a bit.
Next pull out the biggest bowl you have and your chopping board, chop lettuce, tomatoes and throw 'em in the bowl.
Throw in your kidney beans, cheese and chips. 
Gently toss these ingriedients together.
Add your ground beef and onion mixture and the Thousand Island (trust me you won't regret it)
Mix it all together and enjoy! This is also good cold the next day.

I hope that you all have a very blessed week and weekend.

Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.  1 Peter 5:7



Birthday party down, meal planning and clean up to go!

Well my oldest little girl turned 9 this past week and we had celebrated well over a week! Needless to say we had lots of good food, fun and were blessed to spend some time with family and friends.  Here are a few pictures of the fun!

cake first... yeah that's how we roll!

listening very carefully to the directions for the scavenger hunt.

the hunt is on and the children are running wild!!

running through the woods to find the treasure.

Kinley wondering what all of the excitement is about.

beautiful blue eyes is just happy to be outside with the big girls :)

the birthday girl enjoying one of the found treasures.

the next day, we made it through the night!

Divas.

With all of the partying past us now it time to think about clean up and Fall recipes that I can make in one dish!  I was reading one of my favorite blog sites, The Pioneer Woman whose recipes are done in pictures and funny stories and ran across some great ideas for dinner this week.  If you haven't checked out PW you need to take a minute to check her out, she is hilarious!  Of course the other site that I adore and get most of my ideas from, Orgjunkie, has allowed me to fill in the rest of my days with other menu planners' ideas!  So here goes with the plan. . .

Ok so here it is Tuesday, obviously I'm running behind on my planning.  I started the blog on Sunday, got kicked off the computer by the hubby.  Started back at it yesterday, again kicked off the computer by hubby.  Sent him to work today, finally get to finish it!   I suppose better late than never is a relevant saying at this point.

Dinner



Sunday  - Out to dinner

Monday - Spaghetti and salad

Tuesday - PW corn chowder and corn bread

Wednesday - BBQ turkey, Twice-Baked-Potatoes

Thursday - PW roasted-vegetable-minestrone 

Friday - Pizza-Casserole and cheese sticks

Saturday - left over soup and sandwiches

Breakfast

Our breakfast this week will consist of cereal, fruit, breakfast burritos, wheat waffles and peanut butter

Lunch

Lunches for us are varied since I have to make lunches for all of us separately.  For Tony salads and fruit (his request!) Kaitie, soup, leftover spaghetti, sandwich, ravioli for the main courses, fruit, chips, and a drink to finish it off. And for myself, well, whatever I feel like throwing together between laundry and dishes!

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.  ~ 2 Corinthians 4:7

Have a blessed week!