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. 

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?!

New Restaurant Friday: Wild Wing

This was where we decided to take our New Restaurant Friday this week. Originally on my meal plan for this week we were going to try somewhere else, but after much deliberation and Thursday night hubby mentioning wings no less than three times we changed our minds!

Boy were we glad we did! Wild Wing located on Granville St in Vancouver is a cute little joint located between Nelson and Smithe. When you walk in it is set up very much like a Hooters for those of you that have been to one; roomy booths, a bar, and lots of televisions.

We were seated right away, which surprised me since there was a hockey game...or maybe that is why we were seated right away. Our waitress was great, very attentive.

When you look at the menu you are offered wings three ways: traditional (breaded), naked, or boneless. We chose traditional.

This is what we had:

 Garlic Parm, Sweet brunette which is a combo of the two flavors we got, and Honey BBQ. I only tried one and it was the sweet brunette really tasty. Great combo of the two flavors.

This was my meal, coconut shrimp and caesar salad. The shrimp were as good as any from back home in Florida. Crispy, not greasy and the dip was fantastic, really complimented them. The salad was tossed in the garlic parm dressing, 'twas perfect! 

These two goobers enjoying their wings. The teenager was acting a fool as any good teenager does when out to wings with her parents! 

At the end we got these tasty little candies:

Wild wing is great for groups and families. The booths were large, it wasn't quiet, and the food is for the fingers! Make sure you go check it out!

Feature Friday!

Hi! So, I wanted to start doing a Feature Friday to feature some of my favorite posts for the week that I read an wrote!

What I Read:

My good real life friends over at Food For Your Cell wrote a great article on 15 Minutes to Better Health. These are easy things that you can do everyday to improve your health. Go read it, what will you start implementing today?

The other thing I was reading this week was up on Cheerfully Imperfect ; her post about the 30 day fermented foods challenge she is doing. I am always looking for new and different ways to improve my health and learn about new types of food and improve my palette. I don't usually go for fermented foods but her list of fermented foods really got me thinking. So I've gone out and bought some keifer, some coconut yogurt, and kombucha. The recipes I am going to try making are the pickles, applesauce, and ranch dressing for my salads.

What I Wrote: 

This week I had a couple of great articles I feel! The first was a post about how each week I focus on one room/area of my home to deep clean. I assign a task to each day and do those, they take usually no more than 15 minutes. Here is the article.

The other post I want to talk about is an awesome keepsake I created for my daughter and her cousins. It is an ornament I made with a picture of the 3 of them in it with some sand from our favorite beach and some baby shells we all found together. Go check it out as it is a great thing to have in mind if you are going on a big vacation this year, it is something you can gather most of the supplies while on vacation! 

So, that is for my weekly wrap up! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

DIY Beach Ornament

Good Afternoon! 

Today I have a great little craft project. I am talking ornaments today. I know, ornaments?! What the heck?! Well, these are actually ornaments that you could display all year long. They make a great keepsake and the supplies can be gathered while you are on vacation!

This is what you will be making:

Supplies:

• Sand (can be gathered when on vacation)
• Glitter (optional)
• Small Shells (can be gathered when on vacation)
• Small picture
• Tweezers
• Scissors
• Small funnel
• Glass ornament bulb
• Hanger for your ornament

Process:

First, choose the picture you want in your ornament. Have it printed, then shrink it-a lot! I shrunk mine by 50% on to regular printer paper. I wound up being 2" by 2". Seems small, but those bulbs are tiny.

I chose this picture of my daughter with my niece and my nephew on the beach at my parent's beach house in Florida. It's so wonderful the way they were standing holding hands with the oldest in the middle. The picture just makes me smile and lets me remember the fun times we had that summer. Not only does this photo hold great memories, but it is simple. There isn't a ton to look at. The children are the focus and it clearly shows where we are.

Next, take the bulb and remove the top. 

Then, putting the small funnel in the top pour in the desired amount of sand. One very, very, very important thing to remember here is sand is very heavy. So this will add quite a bit of weight to the ornaments, so add it sparingly. I then added a tiny bit of glitter to give the sand some color. Once you have that in there place your finger over the top of the ornament and shake a bit to mix it up.

Now, this part coming up was the most difficult for me, personally.

Take the picture and trim it to desired size. Then, roll it up and put it in the ornament. If you are a perfectionist this is where I apologize to you. Using the tweezers manipulate the photo so it is in the position you would like. At some point you will have to accept that the photo looks good enough positioned a certain way, remember it looks better than you think it does most likely. Once you have it to that point of this looks awesome, using the tweezers gently push the picture into the sand to stabilize it.

Toss in a few tiny shells for some ornamentation.

On the front or back write the year using a sharpie. I sent the final product to a couple of friends (who all live in different places and I sent the messages separately so as not to "taint" the answers) and they unanimously agreed the year actually looked best written across the front...you can see it below.

 You can also add a tag at the top marking the place along with a nice ribbon to hang it from!

This makes a great keepsake for a beach vacation or to give as a gift at-don't kill me for saying it-Christmas!

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?

Garnier Fructis Damage Eraser

I know you all have been waiting in serious anticipation since my last post about the Mystery Brand Voxbox I received from Influenster.

Well, it has arrived...the big reveal is....

This stuff really is great. It makes your hair smell amazing. The split end serum has really helped to soften my ends that tend to get frizzy this time of year due to blow drying, curling iron, hot rollers, flat iron, etc. The small jar is a "butter" it feels like whipped butter and makes my hair super silky. I just use it once a week when I take my nice long soak in a bubble bath, almost like going to a spa. ;)

Here is the video reveal I did: 

Have you tried Damage Eraser? How do you like it?