Posted on

Wine is back on the Menu!

 

All good things must come to an end… My husband and I have decided to end the Whole 30 a few days early. We gave it a great run! He ended up losing 23 pounds and I lost 11 pounds. That is more than enough for both of us. That is not why we have chosen to end it though. We have gotten some sad news from his family and he needs to go out-of-town for a few days. We had been so looking forward to eating together at a restaurant for the first time together since this started, so we will just be doing that a little early. I will not go crazy with the food (or alcohol) while he is gone and I don’t believe he will either.

I believe the Whole 30 or 27 in our case was a great way for us to get a jumpstart on a healthier lifestyle. We learned a ton about cooking with fresh ingredients, we tried new foods and we experimented a lot in the kitchen. We both have talked about doing a “Whole 7” or a “Whole 10” once a month or once every couple of months for fun and just as a smaller reset of our food habits.

I will not be spending hours in the kitchen cooking – so I can finally get together my favorite Whole 30 recipes. I will get that up this week!

I have also been working on my home office and plan on posting some before and after pictures of that which I am really excited about. The office before was always where we stuffed any random junk in to get out of the way before company came over – NOT anymore. It’s so peaceful in there now.

 

Posted on

The best (meat free, dairy free, gluten free) lasagna ever!!!

I have to share this – I made the absolute best Whole 30 meal yet off of Pinterest last night. It was a lasagna knock off – that wasn’t really lasagna because of course there is no cheese or pasta, but wow, was it delicious! It was so good that even my young kids who looked at it first and said, “it doesn’t look like lasagna” and “can I have just the sauce with real pasta?”  Or something else altogether – even they loved it!

You can find the recipe here:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AQMMCdJplNuKpo3NP52c877UjPrykwe_U3NsPO3dEQi3oWHA4SA8L8g/

On the recipe card it has a link for her homemade marinara sauce. I made that as well with a couple of tweaks here and there, nothing big. It was honestly the best thing I’ve eaten in 18 days! I took a picture, but it looks terrible,  you would never eat it based off my picture, so here’s this instead. 

I’m not sure you would eat it based off that either, but seriously, it was really good. Her marinara recipe was awesome and I think the cashew paste was the secret ingredient. I was just doing some research and I guess there are a couple of Whole 30 advocates out there who would be against using Nutrional Yeast to make the “cheese” paste as a cheese replacement. I’m not one of them – there are no banned ingredients in it, cheese is not my weakness and will not make me cave and I really needed a delicious meal to send me through to the second half of this journey!

Have you tried any delicious recipes lately?

 

Posted on

So Many Vegetables!

 

As it turns out, the Whole 30 is pretty time consuming. I spend a ton of time now researching, washing, prepping and cooking! So much more time than I ever did before. We eat so many vegetables now. I’ve tried so many new things and  it is hard! There is no grabbing fast food for dinner when you are out – if you do go out to socialize, you are pretty much forced to watch others enjoy their food and beverages while you sip on water. It’s ok though, I’m through the halfway point and I haven’t fallen off the wagon yet and neither has my husband. My 16 year old daughter on the other hand…

She’s another story and that’s ok. She’s 16 and hasn’t yet developed the will power that is necessary to say no to pretty much everything. She is also exposed to a lot more and has friends who are not as supportive. She did make it almost 2 weeks, which is pretty good.

I will say this, my husband and I both feel great. We sleep better, wake up feeling refreshed and we’ve both lost quite a few pounds. I’ve lost eight pounds and he’s lost 15! So a combined 23 pounds in just two weeks, that’s insane.

I’m sure we will gain a ton of that back shortly after our 30 days is done, but I’d like to think that this “reset” will get us on track to a healthier lifestyle. We are both looking forward to that. When I have more time, I plan on sharing some of my favorite recipes that I’ve found, there have been some delicious ones!

If you are interested in the Whole 30, I highly recommend heading to pinterest, there are great recipes there, I’ve only found a few “duds” so far.

Posted on

Whole 30 Day 1

So, today is officially Day 1 of our Whole 30 challenge. Basically if you haven’t heard of Whole 30, you go 30 days without eating sugar (including alcohol!), dairy, legumes, and grains- it’s a complete diet overhaul. After the 30 days is up, you slowly reintroduce foods into your diet to see if they’ve had any effects on your digestive system and/or energy levels. The added bonus is hopefully a few pounds lost.

My 16 year old daughter, myself and my husband are all giving this a shot from today until February 1st. Yesterday, I washed and chopped a bunch of fresh fruit and vegetables and meal prepped two meals. I made a breakfast casserole that we are going to use as breakfast and lunch and a beef stew for dinner tonight that is in the crock pot right now.

For week one, we spent $204 on groceries which included 3 boxes of kcups and some staples like almond butter, ghee and various oils and vinegars. Also, tons of fresh produce! My goal is to start posting some of our favorite recipes, especially those that were a hit with everyone.

Tomorrow, there will be more breakfast casserole. Thank goodness for that. Dinner will be grilled chicken and asparagus. I’m thinking about some sort of coconut milk, banana and almond milk smoothie for breakfast or lunch tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll mix my coffee in with that somehow. I’m just not sure yet. The Whole 30 program really does not encourage smoothies or snacks, but I’m still getting the hang of this program, and I’m not used to eating three meals a day anyways. I’m much more of a coffee with creamer kind of person and that’s the only thing I’m struggling with so far today.

Any advice? Words of encouragement? Whole 30 family friendly recipes so that I’m not making two meals?

 

 

Posted on

New Year, New Me

Did anyone else think there would be flying cars by now??? My kid self would be really let down by the future I think. Anyway…

I am really looking forward to saying goodbye to 2017. The past couple of years have not been easy. I am ready for a new beginning to a new chapter in life and 2018 seems like a good time to start. So instead of making resolutions this year, I am going to make goals for the year. Here they are:

  • I am going to learn how to embroider like a boss
  • I am going to read books again
  • I am going to purge things from my home that I don’t need – at least once a month
  • I am going to do the Whole 30 once in January and depending on hard it is, maybe do it again…
  • I am going to work out and get into better shape
  • I am going to strive to be the kind of mom/woman that my daughters can be proud of and look up to and want to be like when they grow up.

I think that’s enough and it’s reasonable. And now that I’ve written about it and put it on the internet for the world to see, maybe I will hold myself more accountable…

What are your goals for 2018?

Posted on

My last Christmas Post (I hope)

I hope if you are reading this you had a wonderful holiday – whatever you may celebrate in your home.

I get a little crazy over Christmas myself, so I’m going to try and wrap up all of my Christmas posts into one long one. One of my goals this year was to make as many homemade presents as I could. I wanted to make more than I did, but I did make more than I ever have in my life! I posted previously about a pillow and a cushion I was making for my aunt and uncle in-laws, I made my mom a pillow as well with the same fabric that I used for that pillow. I made this pillow for my mother-in-law:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bib for my husband’s coworker:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this pillow for a friend of the family:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made new tree skirts out of blankets for our Christmas Trees. Tree Skirts cost too much, and ours really needed replacing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, this about sums up my post right now. I think Santa dropped off the Grinch because my kids are at each other’s throats and making me crazy. I am going to say the “Serenity Prayer” (or at least the tiny bit I know of it) over and over in my head right now.

I sincerely hope both your holiday and winter break are going much better than mine!

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Kids are annoying…

Ever have one of those days where you are getting everything done for everyone but you? I had one of those days yesterday.

I printed out over 150 pictures at Walgreens to go through and send to my Mother in law, picked up the high schooler, made gingerbread houses with the second grader at school, got all of the girls beautified and took them to get their pictures taken with Santa, bought them all smoothies, found the perfect ornaments for teacher gifts to go along with the gift cards I had purchased, picked up pjs for Christmas Eve from Wal-Mart, honestly the list could go on and on.

I was doing all of these things for everyone else and then my kids started fighting with each other and acting like jerks!

Why? Why do they do that? It’s so annoying. I know it’s just because they are kids, but the whiny kid in me wants to say, “Hello? Don’t you see everything I’m doing for you and your dad and your teachers right now? Can’t you be nice if only for this reason???” Thankfully, my whiny kid can keep her mouth shut and use her parenting voice and just put the kids in time out when we got home. It is nice to vent though. Later on, when I was finishing up the rest of my presents for the in laws, my husband made sure to say thank you and that he appreciated my hard work. That is always nice to hear.

Presents for the in-laws are wrapped and sent, so I’m done with everyone besides immediate family!

How is your holiday prep coming? Kids making you crazy?

Posted on

A Monster Calls

One of my favorite things to do that I’ve missed out on while in my slump is to read. A friend of mine loaned me a book the other day, so I gave it a shot and breezed through it in one night! It was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

If you like to read, I highly recommend this book. It’s sort of a coming of age story mixed with some fantasy and a tiny bit of mystery/horror. The story follows a 13 year old boy going through trials and tribulations of a sick mom, bullies at school, the aftermath of divorce and then to top it all off, a Monster coming to visit him at night.

It’s a beautiful story honestly. It made me cry my eyes out, so if you are sensitive to books at all, keep your tissues handy. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m very interested in it now!

What books do you recommend? I need some new ones now that I’m getting back into reading again!

Posted on

ICE! at Gaylord Palms

We just went to ICE! at Gaylord Palms and saw the Christmas Around the World 2017 display. It was beautiful! I have wanted to go for years and we finally made it. ICE! is basically a room with sculptures made entirely of ice set to a theme and the room is kept at 9 degrees to keep everything from melting. It is a really “cool” experience, especially when you live in FL. The Gaylord Palms is a beautiful hotel as well. I had never been there before but the hotel itself is an experience – there is an atrium and there was a Christmas Tree display. It was just really cool. I am so excited we finally got to go!

Here are some pics from ICE!

Pictured above is a really fun ice slide that you can go down.

At the end there is this amazing nativity scene and angel: 

Random Pictures throughout the Gaylord Palms and their Christmas tree village:

If you ever have an opportunity to visit, I highly recommend it. My family and I had a great time. It really is a beautiful place.

Posted on

Preparing for Guests

Edit: I’d like to do a quick update to see how much of my list I actually got done. The following week and a half has been ridiculously insane and hectic in my house so I am just now sitting down at my computer! I actually did better than I thought.

I’m not sure how other people are when they prepare for guests, but I go a little insane. Some may even say a lot insane, but I don’t really know what normal is.

I’ve already got the guest bedroom ready with fresh sheets, so it looks as nice as it can. Their bathroom is clean too. They are coming to stay and watch my children while I am gone for the weekend, so I am extra appreciative and trying to make up for the fact that I won’t be around to host them.

So, here are my To-Dos for today:

  • Make Dining Room Table
  • Make Kitchen Table
  • Clean up Office
  • Vacuum Daughter #1 Room
  • Clean out Car/Vacuum
  • Get Oil Change
  • Make Tree Skirts
  • Wrap Presents
  • Wrap Pictures
  • Make Christmas Crack
  • Pack
  • Shower
  • Decorate Outside Tree
  • Finish Outside Lights
  • Clean my bathroom – did not get to finish this
  • Wash my Sheets
  • Wash Daughter 1 Sheets
  • Make Banana Bread
  • Clean out fridge
  • Give dog a bath
  • Work on Website
  • Straighten Daughter #2 and #3 Drawers
  • Run to store
  • Pick up kids from school

As I write this post, I’m waiting for my car to finish the oil change, so at least I’m wrapping that up. I almost never get one of these lists completed, but I do try my best.

What does your guest prep list look like? Also, what am I forgetting to do???