Healthy Eating

For those of you who know me, know how much I used to love chicken strips.  I would go to any restaurant (Mexican, pizza place, Chinese, etc) and end up ordering chicken fingers.  Well,  any desire for something that moos, clucks, or oinks came to a screeching halt a little over a year ago.  I watched a documentary called Food, Inc. and that did it for me.  Honestly, I think I have always been a vegetarian and I just now did something about it.  I have never eaten anything from the ocean, and it has been years since I would eat eggs.  I went for about a 10 year period of time where I wouldn't eat hamburgers.  It was like a light bulb went off when I watched that movie that eating animals is just nasty.  The ironic thing about me becoming a vegetarian is that I don't like vegetables.  HA!  The first year I became a vegetarian, I ended up making up for the missing meat with pasta dishes.  This year I realized I have to eat something other than all those carbs.  Thanks to Adina Wiseman with the Belly Blast, I have found so many vegetables I LOVE that I never dreamed of even touching.  This whole thing has been a learning experience for sure.  I didn't know where to find half the things I was looking for at the grocery store.  HA!

Here is just a sample of the delicious and healthy foods I LOVE to eat now!

I started with carrots and broccoli.  I still cannot stomach raw veggies so I have learned it is all in how you prepare them.  I roast mine with a little sea salt, garlic salt, and olive oil.

This meal has become my all time favorite!  It is "fake chicken" which is really a fungus (think mushrooms), eggplant, and tomatoes!  I can tear up some eggplant and tomatoes!

This would have to be my 2nd favorite veggie meal.  It is squash and zucchini with olive oil, sea salt, and cajun seasoning.

This one is a soybean sandwich with roasted broccoli with the cajun seasoning.  I seriously prefer broccoli over french fries now.  Crazy stuff huh?

This meal took a couple of tries for me to get down.  I bought the wrong kind of squash.  This is spaghetti squash and it is so good.  It is seriously not that different from eating regular spaghetti, and it is so much better for you.

I know this does not look healthy but it really is.  It is Ezekial bread with bananas, and PB2.  The Ezekial bread is more natural than regular bread, and the PB2 is a powder you mix with water until you reach a peanut butter texture.  YUM!

Hold on to your seats for this one.  I actually made and cooked and ate and loved brussel sprouts!  Once again, it is all in how you prepare them.  They were delicious!

This is a great healthy treat.  These are energy bites made with flax seed, honey, oats, peanut butter (or PB2), chocolate chips, and vanilla. 

Another thing I have cut out is real milk.  I won't go into details about the reasons, but I seriously don't think I can drink real milk again.  Now I drink Almond milk which is better for you and tastes better.  I have not gone to the extremes to cut out ice cream yet though!  HA!

I also make myself a green smoothie every morning.  I make it with spinach leaves, bananas, PB2, and almond milk.  Good Stuff!!!

I never thought I could drink my coffee black.  I was always one of those girls that had a little coffee added to my cream and sugar.  Now I drink it black every morning, and I don't think I could ever go back.

I do splurge a little every now and then.  I use Mondays as my cheat day.  I usually treat myself to Yogurt Mountain which is my all time favorite! You do have to enjoy the little things in life!

I have found this new, healthy way of eating so much fun and so much better for me.  I have truly surprised myself with all these new foods!  I have more energy than I have ever had, and I have lost 12 pounds since the beginning of January!!!

February Theme Dinner

Two years ago, I prepared a monthly theme dinner for Kevin and the girls.  I didn't keep the tradition going last year because, honestly, I ran out of monthly ideas.  However, the girls loved it so much that I thought I would do them again this year.  Hopefully, with the help of pinterest, I can come up with some creative dinners.

February is an easy one because obviously there is Valentine's Day.  I do have so much fun buying the decorations for the dinner.

I managed to find these really cute, heart shaped, cheese ravioli at Sam's.  The girls LOVED them!

For dessert, I bought chocolate covered strawberries!  YUM!

The girls LOVED the dessert even more than the ravioli's!  Imagine that!

Stay tuned for March's theme dinner!  It will be lots of fun!!

Smores and Soccer

I have hardly had any time to blog this year.  Things have been so busy!  With school and soccer back in full swing, our lives are pretty busy.

We did manage to have some fun a couple weekends ago when we had Elia's friend, Jacey, over to play.  We ordered pizza.

We also made smores out by the fire pit.

The kids had fun telling scary ghost stories.

Ava brought her guitar out and serenaded us.  She is too funny!

Miley was so scared of the fire.  She wouldn't even look at it or get near it so I had to love on her.

Speaking of Miley, she and Elia are truly best buddies!!!  

We had our 3v3 soccer tournament today.  It was absolutely freezing!  The temps stayed in the 30's all day and we even had some snow for a little while.  Talk about COLD!

I'm not sure how much of Elia's games Ava actually watched.

I did manage to get a couple of pictures of the girls playing soccer.  It was too cold to take pictures because that involved taking my gloves off!  

We were outside from 7am until 1:30 am in the freezing cold!  I could definitely never live up north!  If the school system doesn't get things worked out, we may have to move to Florida!  HA!  

My favorite moment of the day was on our ride home when we saw this cardinal waiting for us as we pulled into the cove.  God knows just when to send one of his "God winks" down to us!

1st Post of 2013

It is January 22, and I am just now getting around to posting to blogging for the first time this year.  My 2012 blog book came in the mail the other day, and I was so excited to get it!  It is so much fun to see memories from the previous year.  That's what I LOVE most about blogging!

I have a lot of catching up to do from the past few weeks.  Kevin built Elia a cool, new Lego table.

Ava got to meet some pretty cool storm chasers at school.  

We went to a really fun paint party at Meredith's house.

We also went to see the Harlem Globetrotters.  That was a very fun night!

The girls got to get the Globetrotters to sign their basketball.  

Our dishwasher just about flooded our kitchen so we had to buy a new one.

Of course, the box was the most fun!  Remind me next year to find a large box when we go Black Friday shopping.  This box has been a source of entertainment for days!

KK came down and brought Allie and Caleb.  Jason also brought the boys over.  We went to McDonalds and then to my house.  They played Twister.

They also played basketball where the dishwasher box was the ticket booth.  They made tickets, had pretzels at the game, and had a ton of fun!

The other thing we have done this month is try to focus on eating healthier.  I have been doing a 21 day body blast and so far, I am down almost 8 pounds.  I have found many vegetables I LOVE that I didn't realized I loved.

The best thing about it is I got Ava to eat broccoli.  I never thought I would see the day that would happen.  Ava is definitely my picky eater (even worse than me if that is even possible).  Elia is the best eater and eats healthier than most nutrition experts.  

Here's to hoping 2013 is just as good as 2012!