March Goal Setting!

Wow, I cannot believe we are in to March already! Wow, wow, wow. I mean really, where is this year going?!

First off, yesterday I celebrated my one year blogiversary!!! This is the very first post I wrote on meal planning! It does not seem like one year has gone by so quickly already! Hard to believe!

At the beginning of the year I was super set on goals. I started out strong in January and mostly kept up with the stuff I wanted to. I flossed almost everyday, my most typical day I would "forget" is on Saturday nights, which is when we usually go out with friends and get in late so that was laziness. I kept it going somewhat through February, but once we got back from the UK I just sort of became unfocused.

The positive is goals are something you can pick back up on anytime, anywhere!

So, I have a few goals set about for March from my post original post:

Focus on Flossing {again}
Focus on clean eating

and

should help me focus on my clean eating. I just bought those two from our local bookstore. All my meals plans will be based off of them. Should make eating clean and healthy a no-brainer. I am also focused on eating/drinking at least two fermented foods a day. My focus there is kombucha, coconut yogurt, keifer, and organic pickles. 

Complete my TESOL certification for tutoring English Language Learners. I am almost through the program so it should be easy, I just need to focus and spend a few hours on it everyday.  

My final goal is to get pictures of some projects I have done and post them to my Etsy shop so I can finally get that store up and running. 

How are your goals coming along that you set at the beginning of the year? What specific goals do you have for this month to work toward those beginning of year goals?!

Mash up!

Howdy y'all!!!

So today's post will sort of be a mash up of several different things. Really not much rhyme or reason to any of it. At the end though I will post two recipes for the upcoming Easter festivities.

The first thing I wanted to say was why I stared this blog. I'm not much of a writer but as I get older I'm enjoying it more and more. Second, I have a lot of stuff to say and a lot of stuff to share but not many people to share it with in my real life since I live so far away from all my close family and friends. I annoy them daily with the stuff I am constantly working on (which I don't even share wall of it, just think how annoyed they'd be then! Ha!). So, I figured since I feel like I have a lot of good ideas and I'm always trying a lot of things out I'd take my rumblings to the good people of the Internet. :P

We are on Spring Break here is amazing Vancouver, BC. It is two weeks long! It's rare that a district has a break that long. Luckily we live in a great city so there is lots of fun stuff to do. The first thing we did last Friday was my daughter and I had a girls night. We did dinner at Red Robin:

A bit if shopping at Forever 21 (I'll post about my findings there later this week), then we went to see "Oz the Great and Powerful". The movie was great! I've never read the books but I Feel like it explained the beginnings of the Wizard quite well! The teen enjoyed it too so we were both happy at the end of the night!

Sunday consisted of our weekly donut ritual:

Tim Hortons is a great little donut place that truly gives us a tasty treat when we want it! It's very, very similar to Dunkin' Donuts in the states.

Monday was spent at Vancouver's largest indoor carnival. It's located at BC Place (Roger's Arena). For a spectator tickets were just $6 and for an all you can ride pass for a whole day was only $29. Not too bad. There were quite a few rides there (admittedly not as many as I thought there would be) but the teenager didn't seem to notice. Her and her little friend stayed from 10 am to 4:30pm. Around 11am there was a bit of a puking incident but she quickly recovered. Haha! They have tons of games there and quite a few things for the little ones to do as well. With your pass as long as you get a stamp you can come and go all day. I recommend taking lunch off site as it will most likely be healthier and cheaper. A hot dog runs about $5.50 so beware. It is totally worth checking out though!

Now, for the good stuff! I have two super yummy recipes to share with y'all!

The first is a delicious shell topping!

Soon I hope to make this even healthier by creating one with our chocolate chips but this was what I had on hand so it's what I used.

Shell Ice Cream Topping

1/2 cup coconut oil (make sure it's almost like a soft butter consistency; not hard but not liquid)
1.25 cups chocolate chips (semi sweet is best)

Combine both ingredients in a microwaveable safe dish

Microwave on high at 30 second intervals until smooth. I think mine only took 60 seconds. Pour in jar the top your favorite ice cream with it! It will create a great shell just like the stuff you buy!

<-----See!!! Shell!!! So fun!!!!

****Note: I am storing mine in the fridge. When we need to use it we just reheat it at 30 second intervals with the lid off the jar until it is pourable.

The second recipe is a decadent one! It came from a YouTube video my daughter found. We tweaked the recipe for what we had on hand though.

Robin's Egg Milkshake
Yields one ver thick large shake or two smaller shakes.

2 cups of your favorite chocolate ice cream
1/2 cup of milk
A handful of Robin's Eggs Easter Candy (we couldn't find Robins Eggs up here in Canada so we used Hershey's brand Candy eggs they have a colored candy coating on the outside and milk chocolate inside).
Handful of ice
Whipped cream
Extra eggs for garnishing
Spring themed sprinkles

In a blender combine ice cream, milk, handful of robins eggs, and ice. Blend on high until combined. Pour into one large glass or two smaller glasses. Top with whipped cream. In bag add about 4 robins eggs, using a rolling pin lightly squish them. Pour atop the whipped cream. Add sprinkles. Drink up!

We are loving the coming of spring! What is your favorite part of spring?

Also, et me know if you try these two treats!

Getting the house together: Meal Planning, part 2

     So, it has come to my attention that I am a horrendous blogger. I have told myself for years that I really want to blog and write about my everyday life, experiences, projects, etc., yet I don’t really take action on it. So, my goal for this week is to write a blog post every single day. My secondary goal is to get that blog post up in the morning!  But, we’ll take that one in stride; so far it isn’t going so well. ;)

Anyhow, I am continuing to focus on becoming increasingly more organized around the house. Baby steps I tell myself. So, the last post I did was about my monthly meal planning. I do the big one for dinners so I can make sure that when I do my monthly Costco trip I get enough protein for all my meals. I try to go to Costco just once a month as you can rarely get out of that place for less than $100 and if I go more than once I can easily blow my whole grocery budget!

     So, quickly, go print off one of the weekly meal planning sheets from my last post, or simply grab a sheet of notebook paper & label it “Meals: Week of March 18-24, 2013”. Then, come right back….

     ….WELCOME BACK! Ok, so I like to write down each date, then label the lines B, L (this gets 3 separate lines labeled K, M, C for each one of us as we don’t often all eat the same thing for this meal), D (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner…duh.) I fill in breakfasts first. My method for this is to decide on two rotatable things to make ahead so there is little work to be done in the morning.  Then, I fill in my dinner from my monthly menu (changing things around where needed as when I made that menu I wasn’t sure what my come up, so be flexible people, it’s just foodJ). Once I fill in the dinners I then evaluate how much leftovers 

     I will have and I assign those as lunches for one or more of the three of us, sometimes using those leftovers to make a completely new meal as hubby is a slight bit opposed to leftovers.

So, here it goes, my step-by-step (does anyone else here New Kids on the Block here) instructions:

•   Paper  and pen
•  Monthly dinner menu (if you made one)
•   Evaluate what is in your freezer and pantry
• Write down those meals!
• Go to the grocery store if need be
• Prep/portion out that food so most of the work is already done for you!
• Freeze anything that you are afraid may go bad before you can use it.

So, here is my menu for the week:

Breakfast:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip pancakes (tripled & ones we won’t use this week frozen in freezer bags).

Tuesday, Thursday: English muffin breakfast sandwiches (premade, wrapped in foil, frozen).

Saturday: Omlette’s , bacon

Sunday: Donuts, coffee

Lunch:

*This week is a bit different for us as my daughter is on Spring Break

Monday: K, C: Leftover smorgasbord; use up all leftovers so nothing is wasted; M: Sausage coins, corn, apple

Tuesday: K,C: Shredded tofu and black bean salad with tortilla chips; M: Blackened chicken breast with bacon & cheese potato coins.

Wednesday: K, C: Teriyaki tofu ramen; M: Lunch out

Thursday: K, C: Picnic lunch at Capilano Suspension Bridge: almond butter and jelly sandwiches on homemade flax bread, apples, grapes, water; M: Leftover spaghetti and salad

Friday: K, C: Leftover smorgasbord; M: Lunch Out

Saturday: Mini Pizzas and salad

Sunday:Snack on leftovers, breakfast will be big and late so make it light.

Dinner:

Monday:  Soup and Quesadillas

Tuesday: Spaghetti (double recipe to freeze for later meals), salad, homemade garlic cheese bread

Wednesday: Sweet and sour chicken with rice and mixed veggies (http://pinterest.com/pin/94857135873773887/)

Thursday: Honey apple pork loin with ‘taters  (http://pinterest.com/pin/114912227963028635/_

Friday: Cheese fondue with steak bites, leftover garlic bread, veggies, etc. (this is just a cheese from the local grocery store made for fondue.)

Saturday:  Chicken wings from Safeway with macaroni and cheese and broccoli

Sunday: Steak quesadillas with salad and corn (I just use steak meat meant for stir frying or slice up a skirt steak & cook until almost done then add 4T of homemade taco seasoning with 2/3 cup of water or a pack of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning and cook until done, then put in quesadilla with some cheese & cook in pan until quesadilla is brown on both sides.)

This is my menu for the week.  I’ve provided links where possible and recipes when used. Many times I don’t use recipes I just sort of “wing –it”.

What are some of your family’s favourite meals? Do you always use a recipe or do you “wing-it” like I do?

Getting the house together: Meal Planning

Happy March 1^st, Everyone!!! Who can believe two months of 2013 have flown by already?! Not me, that is for sure! So, coming up this month is St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Break for my (not so) little, and Easter; tons will be happening! So, I’d like to start the month with my meal plan.

Why meal plan? Meal planning helps you feel organized and like you have your crap together. Bottom line; when nothing else is going right, at least you have a plan, some kind of plan. This plan can bring your family together at the end of the day & bring peace & joy to your home.

I try to plan one month at a time. If you are new to meal planning this will be a huge undertaking, it’s a huge undertaking for me & I've been meal planning for 13 years now! So, if you are new to menu planning sit down right now & plan next week’s meals.  Try & include using up leftovers as a new meal or for lunches, & make sure to account for going out to eat if that is something your family enjoys once or twice a week. We try and eat out just once or twice a month, but those are for dietary reasons. Also, when planning your meals look at your schedule. What do you have going on this week? For us we do something easy on Mondays as my daughter has an evening activity. Friday I like for us to try and do a family movie night so I try and do something everyone can customize. Saturday’s are our typical date night, I try to do something light on those days so if we want to get a late night snack or dessert we feel like we have the calories left to do that!

So, the first thing I do is print off a month calendar (I just google whatever month & year it is then print off a free one); or you can print off a weekly menu planner. Here are some of my favorites:

Weekly:

http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.ca/2011/09/food-licious-friday-44-weekly-meal-plan.html

http://anythingbutperfect.com/2009/08/free-printable-weekly-meal-planner/

http://thisdesignercooks.blogspot.ca/p/free-printables.html

Month:

http://www.thenesteffect.com/p/free-printables.html

http://creativemamma.com/free-printable-doodle-2013-write-in-calendar/

http://www.imom.com/tools/get-organized/2013-printable-calendars/ (this is the one I used)

So, now that you have found your ideal monthly calendar and/or  weekly calendar (I do print 4 weekly planners of the second one as I like to be able to plan out lunches & snacks as well, but I do that weekly not monthly) let’s see what my menu looks like!

So, what I did was took a look at Friday’s planned what movies we would watch and planned things that would be fairly easy & customizable. That way we are spending Friday after a long week at work as a family. They are also things that are easy to make a lot of in case the kid decides she wants to have a friend spend the night. I also planned for two dinner’s out the 9^th (which now that I think about it will change to another day due to parent/teacher conferences). Also, I planned to eat out on Easter because I am trying to eat very healthy this month & I love to make ham as fattening as possible so I figure if we go to a nice brunch I can have some salmon. I have something special planned for St. Patty’s Day on the 17^th . I also plan to make something cute & fun for Dr. Seuss’s birthday tomorrow!  Finally, the last two weeks of the month are Spring Break so we have easy things planned that can be prepared ahead then thrown in the oven or thrown in the crockpot. As after a long day of hiking, ropes courses, or looking at museum’s the last thing I want to do is hang out in the kitchen!

So, I hope this will get you started on your new menu planning adventure! On Sunday I will share with you my Menu for the upcoming week as well as my “Sunday Plan” for premaking snacks, breakfasts, as well as prepping vegetables and what not for the upcoming meals!

Have a great weekend!