Menu Plan Monday #41

Hello! Today is Monday, March 3rd...Sunday, we spring forward...my favorite time of year! I really enjoy the extra sunshine, how the hours of sunlight get longer. With the renewed "longer" days, in yesterday's post I decided to reevaluate my goals from January 1st and see what I have accomplished so far and what I need to work on. 

One big thing I need to focus on is nutrition. With this week's meal plan that is just what I intend to do! 

If you need a little help with meal planning, the very first blog post I ever did on March 1st, 2013 was all about getting started with meal planning. Go here to check it out! 

So, anyway, on to the menu! This week is going to include a lot of sugar detox friendly recipes, fermented foods because for good digestion I am trying to get those in, and of course will be high in protein to fuel me for my super tough P90X3 workouts.

Breakfast Options

• Leftovers
• Cereal
• Coconut yogurt parfait with paleo granola
• Paleo granola with keifer
• Eggs with homemade hashbrowns and avocado
• Sunday "Treat": Paleo Pumpkin Spice poppers and applesauce or I may try this fermented applesauce if I can get it together today to start it.

Lunch Options

• Leftovers
• Tuna salad with my awesome homemade dressing
• Chicken salad with my awesome homemade dressing
• Tuna salad on zucchini chips
• Chicken and cheese bites with homemade potato chips
• Baked potatoes/sweet potatoes with broccoli and a little parm

Dinner

Monday: Sausage and peppers with broccoli and applesauce

Tuesday: Pizza Spaghetti Pie with salad

Wednesday: Crock pot pulled pork waffle sliders with salad and applesauce

Thursday: Caramelized baked chicken  with broccoli, corn, and strawberries

Friday: New Restaurant Friday...Finally trying Calabash Bistro since we changed it last week.

Saturday: Chicken fried steaks with salad

Sunday: Homemade pizza with salad

Snacks

• Shakeology
• Leftovers
• Hard boiled eggs
• Zucchini chips with hummus
• Paleo granola
• Fruit

So, this being said, my top 3 goals I'm focusing on this week are:

1. Nutrition and exercise
2. TEFL Certification completion
3. Flossing everyday

What are you munching on this week? Are you doing any goal focusing?

By the way, I am linking up at Org Junkie, and Mommy Run Fast. 

What I Ate Wednesday: Treat Edition

Hey, hey, hey!



Who remembers that?! Fat Albert was my favorite as a kid! I also thought it quite appropriate since he eats a lollipop during that song and I am basically bringing you a treat edition of 

This past week was not a great week for me nutrition wise, but I am still posting because guess what...I am human and those weeks happen. I don't punish myself for it because that is counterproductive. I won't be gaining anything from it and I can't change it. Instead, I shall embrace it!

Mmmmm...Calzone....

Nutella pizza...this was amazing. To read more about this dish click here. 

Great end of dinner treat...Americano!

Hot cocoa with lots of marshmallows on a snowy winter's day...we barely moved from the bed that day.

This is an award winning Kiwi Martini. Made with a delicious kiwi puree...Had a be careful though because it was just so good!

I suppose it wasn't all bad...these were our breakfast on Tuesday. Fruit parfaits (& a little X3).

As you can see I am still on track with X3. I just entered the second transition week. I love this week because it is all total body work. Nothing super high cardio, just deep down muscle work, then lots of stretching. I think these weeks are where I see the most improvement in my body.

So, here's what I've looked like this last week:

Wednesday: X3 Yoga (my fave!)

Thursday: MMX

Friday: CVX

Saturday: Incinerator

Post workout Saturday. This was an accomplishment because it was the workout I almost didn't do. I was so busy Saturday morning I didn't workout first thing. Usually if it doesn't get done early, I don't do it. But, it was snowing and there was nothing to distract me so I focused and pressed play!

Sunday: Rest day...and rest we did! It was snowing all day, the teenagers cheer was cancelled so we literally laid in bed, watched TV (Guy's grocery games is my new favorite show), and napped.

Monday: Isometrix

Held crow for 10 seconds, but was able to hold
the position almost the whole time!

Some sort of dancer something. This stretches the hips
nicely!

Tuesday: Dynamix

Breathing hard through left banana. My core is
becoming so strong!

Me pre-workout, I was doing a bit of photography,
so decided to snap a pic of myself...don't let that smile
fool you, my feet were really numb!!! Our balcony
was super icy.

Tell me, what did you do for yourself this week?

Menu Plan Monday #40

Happy Monday y'all!

I can not believe the weekend flew by so fast! It was a super fun, relaxing weekend though. 

Friday we had our New Restaurant Friday at Pizzeria Ludica. Afterword we came home and had a riveting game of Mario Party! It was a lot of fun.

Saturday hubster & I hit the town looking awesome...the only person caught on camera though was me...

The top right is early in the day...the flakes turned from small and light to large and fairly heavy-the picture captures it perfectly. None of it stuck luckily. I was fairly unmotivated to do my last workout for the week-Warrior-but, I managed and was super happy after I did it. I mean who wouldn't be happy with that shoulder?! Last, hubs and I were board after a day of cleaning and purging while it snowed so after the teenager left for her sleepover we got dressed up and had a nice dinner down at the Tap & Barrel at Canada Place...Tap Greens with grilled chicken breast is the best thing on the menu!

Sunday, was a seriously lazy day. 

We were woken up at 7 am to the cheering and hollering of many happy Canadians as Team Canada won the Gold in Men's Hockey...as you can see that was not our plan, but we rolled with it so we had some coffee, some cuddle time, some nap time. Cheerleading was mercifully canceled for the day due to snowfall warnings. Later in the day we whipped up some delicious cocoa and pretty much stayed in bed all day long. 

It was glorious.

Moving on though...through all that relaxation Sunday I still managed to get my meal plan done! YAY!

I'm linking up over at Organizing Junkie so stop by & check out all the menu's!

Breakfast Options

Cinnamon raisin bagels with coconut oil/peanut butter & fresh fruit

Green apple, pb, and half serving shakeology

Yogurt parfait

Lunch Options

Leftovers: paella, calzone, or soup

Shakeology

Tuna/chicken salad

Dinner

Monday: Kiddo will have pizza at girl guides, I will have whatever is left of the paella

Tuesday: Stuffed sweet potatoes and broccoli meatballs

Wednesday: Crockpot pulled pork with Italian coleslaw, carrots, and corn

Thursday: 

Friday: New Restaurant Friday-Calabash Bistro in Gastown. Was suggested to me on Twitter by another Vancouverite so can't wait to try it!

Saturday: Freezer meal for the little one while she babysits here at home; we are headed to game night at our friends house...hopefully if we all cook together will do some sort of kebab & sweet potato fries...(hint hint if you're reading this).

Sunday: Steak with sweet potato biscuits and peas

I am really looking forward to cooking my Sunday meal. I didn't get to it this last week because I was out of sweet potatoes and I was not going out in the snow to get them! But, this week it is happening those biscuits sound amazing. They are from my William Sonoma Steak & Chops book. 

What meal are you looking forward to cooking this week?

New Restaurant Friday: Pizzaria Ludica

Hello! This weekend we did our regularly scheduled New Restaurant Friday. We tried a restaurant I had found thanks to a FB "suggested pages" ad! Normally I ignore those things but it was marketed as a "board game restaurant". There is nothing more the teenager & I love more than board games...the husband, well, he's in games for a living so he's always up for a fun new experience that involves games.

We ate at Pizzeria Ludica. I'm a terrible blogger & didn't take a picture of a logo, or the outside because. well, I'm terrible.

I made a reservation on their website. Super easy and fast, and we were guaranteed a table this way.

This place was very welcoming when we walked in. Lots of long tables, great for groups. The entire back wall was games.

Teenager selecting a game. They had everything there from super easy family games like mousetrap & yahtzee to more complicated, intricate games like Settlers of Catan.

She chose Munchkin. It was one she had been wanting to try so it was the perfect time!

Hubby had to actually look something up as the game in the restaurant had no tokens so we wanted to make sure we could play without the tokens! We could, it was no problem.

At one point I was a half-breed halfling elf! There are treasure cards & battle cards. You never know what you will get and if it will be a blessing or a curse-quite literally!

So this picture looks super sweet right?! He's "helping" her through a battle, great father/daughter time...right after this he got to choose two cards from her & won the whole game! We have to get more savvy when playing games with this guy...you would think after 15 years I would have figured it out...

So, the game was super fun but the food was amazing as well. My expectations were pretty low because many times at restaurants like this you go for the atmosphere, not the food. Here though, you can rest assured you will go for atmosphere & food!

Four cheese calzone! For a dollar you can turn any of their pizza's into a calzone...my fave!

This was the meat pizza. The crust was delicious, very fresh. The meat on it was ham, pepperoni, and bacon. A perfect combo for my meat lover husband! He is still talking about it two days later.

Since it was New Restaurant Friday we could not pass up dessert. This is a nutella pizza. It had nutella, walnuts, and a caramel drizzle, and was sprinkled with cocoa powder. It was amazing. 

Then we each got an Americano. Very good espresso and they served with fresh cream.

This was a fantastic experience and I cannot rave about them enough! Great place for groups, families, or just to shake up the regular ole date night. They are just steps off the Chinatown Skytrain station in Vancouver, BC. Very convenient location for any one using transit!

Family Favorites Friday #3

This is another classic. My mom made it since I was a kid, but many people don't know what I am talking about when I say what it is: Magic Cookie Bars.

Many people call them 7 layers bars, but not sure why because the recipe I use only has 5 ingredients, or layers, plus they are practically gone the instant they are cool enough to cut, so we will stick with "magic".

This particular recipe my mom always used was found on the inside label of Eagle Brand Sweet and Condensed Milk. I tweak it because, well, my family is picky. So...here is the recipe:

Magic Cookie Bars

-1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs

-1/2 cup of butter, melted

-10-14 oz (about 300ml) can of sweet & condensed milk

-package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

-a little shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a 9X13 pan measure out the graham cracker crumbs.

2. Melt the butter. Pour over crumbs and mix together. Once combined use your hands to press the crust into the bottom of the pan.

3. Open the sweet and condensed milk and pour evenly over the crust. Try and get it as even as possible because once it is on there you can not really move it, but it does sort of naturally spread and settle so however you pour it so long as you cover most of the crust it will be fine.

4. Evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.

5. Evenly sprinkle some shredded coconut over the top. We have someone in our house who isn't a coconut fan so I just sprinkle it over half.

See half with coconut, half without! Pretty darn simple!

Here they are baked! Not the best picture in the world, but they sure are heavenly!

What is a favorite recipe you and your family love?

Menu Plan Monday #36 +a little weekend recap

Hello! I hope everyone's week is starting off spectacularly so far!

This weekend for our little family was quite an exciting one. For Christmas we all got snowboarding gear, lift tickets, and a lesson for the 3 of us. Well, we had to cancel our trip as my daughter had unfortunately gotten ill just before Christmas (seriously, two days before!), and then I got sick on Christmas day! It was absolutely awful and took me weeks to be rid of whatever virus I had. But, fortunately we were able to reschedule at our leisure and decided to go Saturday afternoon. Honestly this was the first weekend we were able to actually go, plus my daughter is studying for mid-terms so it gave her a much needed brain break. ...and exhausted her enough that she slept amazingly well! Here are a few photos from our trip...

Prior to the lesson while we were putting on our boots...I love my little toque (aka beanie lol), was so sunny, couldn't wait to get on the snow! 

All of us post snowboarding. Thank goodness our faces are covered we were all in pain! 

When we decided to take a break after our lesson hubby had never been up to the mountain so I took him to see the city. Isn't it gorgeous?!

This as you look out there is some ocean in there but it is actually covered by all the fog/clouds! Isn't that amazing?! I love the halo around the sun & the little reflection of the sun in the middle right. It was such an amazing day!

Otherwise the weekend was pretty chill. Saturday night we watch Captain Phillips. 

Captain Phillips

It was a fantastic movie and would 100% recommend watching it! Have some tissues ready for the end though!

Sunday we just chilled and relaxed in the morning. The teenager used Skype/Facetime to study with a friend. Starting the 21 Day Sugar Detox over today so looking forward to making some lemon chicken and apple sausage. 

What was your favourite part of the weekend??

Anyway...on to what you are all really here for: Menu Plan Monday!

I am linking up over at Org Junkie so come on over & check out all the other menus!!

As I said earlier, I am starting the 21 Day Sugar Detox over. I had one semi-bad week and just wasn't feeling successful so decided to start fresh. Here is what I will be eating for the first 1/3 of the detox:

Breakfast ideas: Apple sausage & eggs, breakfast hash & eggs, breakfast pizza, paleo pancakes and cinnamon apples, and apple "donuts" for our Sunday treat.

Lunch ideas: Breakfast hash, chicken salad, chicken fried cauliflower, and whatever other leftovers

Dinner: 

Monday: Mini chicken pot pies with a mashed cauliflower topping, side salad; bbq shredded chicken for the hubs and salad and corn for his sides

Tuesday: Fish & veggies with cauliflower soup; breakfast for dinner

Wednesday: Changing up our "New Restaurant Friday" for today since we are going to our Dungeons & Dragons comedy show. We will pop in to a new pub in that area. There is some super unique stuff so can't wait!

Thursday: Soup & sandwiches...for me & the teen: 21 day sugar detox chicken "panini" and leftover cauliflower soup; for the hubs: regular ol' grilled cheese with chicken noodle soup

Friday: Mustard glazed chicken thighs with golden beets/corn for the hubs

Saturday: Hot & sweet ginger chicken, cucumber salad, and rice/corn

Sunday: Cinnamon pork chops with broccoli and quinoa/rice & corn

All of the above recipes are somehow from the 21 Day Sugar Detox guide book. I am taking a lot and changing them up so we are eating some fun things that resemble some of our old family favourites! 

What are you all cookin' up this week? Share it with me! 

S'mores pops! Anybody want a s'mores pop???

This past weekend , since we didn't do a whole lot outside of the house I made myself super busy inside the house! Last year I was more of a store bought cookie kind of gal because it was super difficult for me to get used to the dark dreary days of living in the PACNW. This year however I was determined to make things different and decided to cook up some treats!

Here is the first of the treats I made. It is super simple and requires very little actual cooking.

S'mores Treat Pops
-Candy lollipop sticks
-Large Marshmallows
-Semi-sweet chocolate chips
-Graham Cracker Crumbs
-Milk
-Large, parchment covered plate
Optional: Washi tape

1. The first thing I did was decide how many pops I actually wanted to make. My bag of pop sticks came with 50 so I decided 25 would be enough so I had 25 sticks for a later project. I picked out my 25 & covered them in various colours and patterns of washi.

2. Take a pop stick and stick it into a marshmallow, repeat this for however many marshmallows you choose to make.

3. Measure out half a cup (1 cup) of chocolate chips, add a dash of milk (1/2  tablespoon or so, add slowly because you can always add more, but can't take it away). Melt in microwave in 10-15 second increments and stir until smooth. (Be very careful not to overheat as then you will have something that resembles burnt fudge and that is no bueno.)

4. Pour a bit of graham cracker crumbs into a dish. Make sure they cover the bottom of the dish you are using. I would say you'll need at least a half cup of crumbs. Also, get out a large size plate and cover it with parchment paper or wax paper.

5. Take one marshmallow and dip it into the melted chocolate, then dip it into the graham cracker crumbs. Place it on the parchment covered plate to harden. Repeat this until you have covered as many marshmallows as you want! If it is fairly warm in your home (we keep ours set at Caribbean) you may want to place your plate in the fridge for a bit so the chocolate can harden.

6. For storage I have mine on the kitchen counter in plastic bags and they are doing great! If you wanted to give these as a gift you could easily cover them with some saran and a piece of ribbon, especially if you coordinated it all to your washi!

What is your favourite no-bake holiday treat????

Family Favorite's Friday!

So, I am starting a new series each Friday during the winter showcasing some of my family's favourite meals. These won't necessarily be healthy, but they are favorites that I try to make every now and again. The first is...

Hubby's Favourite Chicken Alfredo

I titled this “favourite” because it is one of my husband’s favourite meals I make. I don’t make it often because, well, it quite frankly is a heart attack on a plate lol But, if you are serving it I suggest to do it right. Use real fettuccine, real cheese, all that good stuff. Here’s the recipe:

Serves 4 (generously)

1 jar of Classico Alfredo sauce or Ragu Alfredo sauce

2-3 chicken breasts

½ a box of fettuccini

Various spices (I use nature’s seasons)

1T olive oil

Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses (to taste)

Cube the chicken breasts. In a pan heat the oil over med-med hi heat and throw in the chicken breasts season all over with the nature’s or all-purpose seasoning of your choice. This is best when you let the chicken fry up so it’s kind of brown on one side. Flip it and let it cook until done. Turn the heat down to low and pour in the Alfredo sauce let it warm while the pasta finishes cooking.

While that is cooking bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions.

Then, add the pasta to the pot with chicken and sauce. Let simmer together. If it seems a little thick add a dash or two of milk to thin it out a bit. Add some seasoning and let simmer for 5 minutes or so.

Dish out and top with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

Yum!

Best served with a nice salad and some garlic cheese bread.

Like I said this is a real treat, not something you have every day but makes a nice Sunday dinner or birthday dinner in this case!

Come on over and join me on Facebook and tell me about some of your family’s favourite “treat” meals.