Monday Menu Plan (On Sunday) :)

Monday - Fiesta Chicken Soup with Cheese Ques.

Tuesday - Salsa Pork Chops with Broccoli, Carrots, and Cauliflower

Wednesday - Chicken Pot Pie (Freezer meal)

Thursday - Crock Pot Sloppy Joe's

Friday - Dorito Casserole (Freezer Meal)

Saturday - Left Overs

Sunday - Its Mexican meal I cannot pronounce let alone spell!! (freezer meal)

This week, I decided to incorporate the few meals we did not use last week from E-mealz, then add in some from the freezer swap! :) I decided I did not want to have to grocery shop at all this week!!! :) We will see how that works out. I did print off this weeks menu from e-mealz that way I would have something to go off of next week! :)

The Biggest Loser!

Hello all!! Sorry I have been so MIA the last week or so. I have been extremely busy getting things ready for the new year of MOPS and various other around the house things!

I have recently started a Biggest Loser Competition at our church! We are in week 4 and everyone is doing fabulous!!! Together we have lost a total of about 32% of our weight!

Now as most of you know I like to win at things. I was second place the first 2 weeks (my husband was in first) so you can imagine I tried that much harder to beat him!:) Now, this week I can tell you I'm down to 4th place! That in itself it a huge slap in the face! :) I like to win, however, I'm mostly doing this for the fun aspect. Seriously though who wouldn't want to win $150 for losing weight????

Anyway, I have been doing various workouts such as the Couch to 5K, and Jillian Michael's 30 day shred! They are both great workouts and I love them! However, I am not following them how you are suppose to! So, I am going to publicly go through the 30 shred! Now, I know everyone does weigh loss blogs, and talks about losing weight! I'm not going to write everyday how my work out was because lets face it that is boring! BUT, I am going to keep you updated weekly with how things are going and where I am at! :)

I can tell you I have done level 2 twice and there may or may not have been some cursing at the tv, but I'm going to start over at level 1 tomorrow and do it for 30 full days! :)

For those of you who are looking for a workout I do highly recommend this 30 day shred. My biggest thing was only wanted to workout for about 30 minutes! These workouts are only 20 minutes! Yes, it's hard, but ONLY 20 minutes! That is alot easier to get motivated for then 40-60 minutes! :)

Enough talk! I will sign off with this! I am not going to be posting pictures and measurements because really who wants to see that?? (NOT ME!) I will keep you updated on the progress though! :) Thanks All!: )

E-MEALZ

So I had a friend recommend I take a look at this website. I am currently competing in the "biggest loser" and have been following a "point" system. This site allows you to customize your meals. I chose the Points from Walmart. This means that every week I will receive a weeks worth of meals from Walmart with points value's attached! Below I attached a small note from their site!

"e-mealz meal plans...

...are written and created by REAL moms with REAL families
...are balanced and family friendly
...are as easy as possible, but delicious and kid tested!
...consist of favorite recipes collected from hundreds of moms
...come with an organized, aisle by aisle grocery list
...are for 4 to 6 people
...are based on the current week sales at your grocery
...are priced at approximately $75 per week
...Two person plans average $35 total per week"

Now, I printed off last weeks and this weeks menu, to work on for my Monday Menu Plan and There was only 2 meals that I was not really all that interested in trying (1 being fish!!)so I was pleasantly surprise!

I'm so excited to try this, tomorrow is my grocery shopping day for the week, and I am pleased to say it took me all of 15 minutes to get my menu and grocery list made! Normally this would have taken a good hour or two! ALSO, another amazing thing is they go off of the deals/roll backs from Walmart so not only do you have your menu done, you are SAVING money too!! Plus if you have coupons for the items you are saving even more! :)

I will update you more each week, and share 1 amazing recipe a week!! I don't want to give it away as I truly believe EVERYONE should subscribe! It's only $15 every 3 months! That only 1.25 a week to have everything done for you!! A MAJOR bonus in my book and totally worth every cent! :)

To check this out or try it simply go"">HERE

This weeks experiment...

I am having an open house later this week, and have been working on finding healthy, but fabulous recipes or things to have for snacks! Here is what I will be trying...

Veggie Pot Stickers

Veggie spinach Dip

Tunisian Spiced Raisin Hummus

Fresh Lime Salsa

Of course there will be veggies and chips to dip! :)

I will be trying each of these out throughout the week to decide if they are good! Has anyone ever tried any of these? If you want to be my guinea pig and try one let me know and I will post the recipe!

Do you have any fun recipes to share?? Be sure to post them in the comments section!

CHICKEN BURRITO SOUP

Weight Watchers Chicken Burrito Soup
A tasty low point way to stay warm and get your veggies in.
Nutrition Facts: 3 WW Points, Calories 262, Fat 2g, Protein 20g, Carbohydrates 41g, Sodium 452mg, Calcium 60mg, Fiber 5g

Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients

* 2 cups fat-free chicken broth
* 1 cup water
* 2 tsp. taco seasoning
* 1/4 tsp. minced garlic
* 1 tsp. parsley flakes
* 1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
* 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
* 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 5 oz. diced cooked chicken breast
* 1- 8 oz. can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
* 1 cup stewed tomatoes, coarsely chopped and undrained
* 1 1/2 oz. uncooked noodles

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, combine chicken broth, water, taco seasoning, garlic, and parsley flakes
2. Add corn, red and green peppers, onion, chicken, kidney beans, and undrained tomatoes
3. Mix well to combine
4. Bring mixture to a boil
5. Stir in uncooked noodles
6. Lower heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until vegetables and noodles are tender, stirring occasionally

I honestly used EVERY ingredient in this!!!! It was Delicious! The kids wanted seconds and even thirds! We ended up eating the whole pan!!! Weight Watcher recipes are actually made so you have no leftovers. I would suggest making a double batch and having left overs! :)

I didn't get a picture before we ate it all, but it was great. Jeff does not like onions and he said he could even taste them!!!!If you want to check out similar recipes like this go HERE!

Helping Mom's cope with loss

I was reading another blog tonight when I came across the title "helping those deal with pregnancy loss."

I constantly wonder why God would put you through these types of things. Why is it, that a child is suppose to be a miracle of God, yet he lets those few slip through the crack?? Now, I am telling you from experience with losing a child that it is NOT easy to go through. It is not easy to lose a child then realize that at this point in your life you have a lot of pregnant people in your life.

I always thought, this would be something you grieve then get over. I can tell you it is not. I had this, to be blunt, crappy experience in January, and thought I was over it. I have had many very close people to me lose babies whether they were just a few weeks or 26 weeks and having a still born.

I think my biggest mistake was holding in how I felt. I had 2 very close friends who were pregnant at the time, and I was scared to tell them I was sad, or upset. I felt like I would be ruining it for them. I never did talk about it with either of them. I guess to this day I don't know if it was out of fear for how they would feel, or how it would make me feel to admit that I was sad that I couldn't be pregnant with them. Almost as though I would eventually get left out because my babies were grown up and I didn't have any their age. I still have feelings of hurt, anger, and resentment for everything I went through then. I can honestly tell you I didn't think it would be that hard.

When my due date came and went and only 1 of my friends called me to see how I was doing I was hurt, to say the least. This particular friend lives far away and we actually hadn't talked for awhile. I think that probably was the worst, that no one remembered.

Another thing that hurts it when people say "so when are you gonna have another one." These people I either don't really know or at the time don't feel like going into it. If God wants me to have another baby it will happen, if he doesn't then I won't. God knows his plans for me, and he knows how many kids I will have. I don't know if I will have another baby, but for now I have 2 amazing children that I am blessed with.

One verse that got me through this was Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I went back and forth with this verse. First I thought yeah right, if you didn't want to harm me then why did you put me through this. The other was well at least I have hope and a future to look forward to.

In this blog she talks about things that you should definitely NOT say! I can tell you I was told at least 2 of these and all I wanted to do was scream at the person saying it! I highly recommend reading it. Just go HERE to see it.

I'm going to end with this. Don’t think there is a “right way” to console a grieving friend. You know your friend and the things that help ease the pain a little bit. I can tell you the one thing I wanted from my friends was, do you want to talk about it?

ACTUALLY DELICIOUS TURKEY BURGERS

The recipe for this week is Turkey Burgers!! As most of you know, Jeff and I are competing in the biggest loser RBC style. We have been finding some really amazing healthy recipes!!!

This week, I found a recipe on www.dietsinreview.com/recipes and was a little hesitant to make it!!! I finally gave it a try tonight. It tricks you at first, because when making them its very gooey. We cooked it on the grill, but first laid down tin foil. After flipping them once all the good crust came off, so after both sides cooked we put it on the grill to let it crisp up a little. We used 2 pieces of Sara Lee 45 calorie bread, so it was a very "cheap" recipe as far as calories go.

For our side we did spaghetti squash from our garden! FABULOUS! If you have never tried this I highly recommend it! We cut ours length wise and baked them on 375 for about and hour. I seasoned it with garlic and onion powder along with paprika!

We also had a cucumber and tomato salad. Jeff and I are not tomato fans but the kids love them!! So, we made that for the kids and we just ate the cucumber! :)

Okay, on to the recipe!

Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers
Enjoy the grill in a leaner way by cooking with turkey.
Nutrition Facts: 208 Calories, 11g Fat, 84mg Cholesterol, 308mg Sodium, 2g Carbs, .3g Fiber, .3g Sugar, 21g Protein



Yield: 12 burgers
Ingredients

* 3 lbs. ground turkey
* 1/4 C. seasoned bread crumbs
* 1/4 C. finely diced onion
* 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
* 1/4 C. chopped fresh parsley
* 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
* 1 tsp. salt
* 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix ground turkey, seasoned bread crumbs, onion, egg whites, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper
2. Form into 12 patties
3. Cook the patties on the grill, or in a medium skillet over medium heat, turning once, to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F.


* We only used 1 pound of Turkey and cut everything else in half. Next time I will make the full amount and freeze half! :) Also, the kids LOVED this!

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