Another Challenge?

I cannot believe it has been a whole month since I have last posted.  Where does the time go?  I definitely am not one of those "good" bloggers who blog 1-3 times a day!  I try, I have the best intentions, then a month goes by!

Anyway, on to the title of this post.  Another challenge is in our midst people! ;)  Yes, I sound so serious.  It's not that bad.  I hope not anyway.  After looking over our finances the last month I realized we ate out A LOT!!  That is saying a lot for us, because we do our fair share of eating out.  If I think it is to much then there is a problem.

With that being said.  The hubs and I have decided to go from 1 of his paychecks to the next with NO eating out.  That is 28 days of no fast food, no Arby-Q's, no Angela's fajita's, and no chicken nuggets.  For us eating out is more of a convenience thing.  We don't do it because we have to, we do it because we are tired and neither of us want to cook.  Our night meal is the equivalent to most people's lunch.  I generally make a healthy good home-cooked lunch.  That is our family meal.  I stay at home and the hubs works, so for us that just works.  So by the time supper comes around, I'm tired and the hubs doesn't get home until at least 6 most nights.

There will be a couple of days in there where we won't worry. For instance, the 21st we will both be out of town for various reasons, so we crossed that day out and then we are ending on the 19th since it is a Sunday.  So we are cutting out 2 days.  Not bad. 

For those of you saying this isn't a challenge, well, then you don't know me very well!  This will be more challenging for me then working out everyday or giving birth. So I may be a little dramatic, but I'm serious too. :)

So, watch for menu planning again and yummy recipes to come.  We start in T-Minus 3 days!

Could not be more proud...

This challenge has been just that, a challenge!! More so for Jeff and I then the kids.  They will really eat anything you put in front of them.  When explaining things to them you could tell they were a little weary of doing it, but yesterday I had my proud mama moment.

Our neighbor lady asked my kids if they wanted a snack, the came running to me and said can we?!  I said sure.  My oldest son said, well, mom what if it has sugar we will have to tell her no.  Will that hurt her feelings???  Luckily it was nothing with sugar, but for my kids to know and not want to accept that as a snack made me quite the proud mama. 

Are you and your family doing the challenge? How have things been going???

Breakfast Cookie

One of the blogs I follow is fitnessista.  She is gluten free, healthy eating, new mama.  She makes her own recipes and manages to come up with some pretty delish finds.  One thing I have done in the past is her breakfast cookie recipe.  It was perfect for me this summer when I was working because I would just take it with me and eat it during my morning rush.  It worked perfectly.

Now that we are working on cutting out sugar I have decided to bring this back.  For me at least. ;)  Yes, I realize I need to let me kiddo's enjoy the benefits, but for now, it's my little secret. 

The recipe for this is HERE.  It is right along the lines of the "real food" we've been trying to do.  The add in's can get tricky if you aren't paying attention.  I just made one and popped it in the refrigerator.  Mine included oats, 1/4 scoop protein powder, 1/2 banana, almond butter, milk, and a small squirt of honey.  I believe she used stevia and cinnamon, but I used a small dribble of honey.  hmm... In the morning I will top it with the left over strawberries or blueberries that we have.  In the past I have added in chocolate chips, but thought I better pass on those.  Also I usually put applesauce instead of the banana.  I'm feeling fiesty today so went with a banana.

If you try this let me know! I'm anxious to see what you add.  What do you do for an easy and healthy breakfast? 

Being aware...

Today marks another day eating "real foods."  Now while we have not gone 100% we are being incredibly conscious about what we are putting into our mouths. We have changed out about 1/2 of what is in our pantry to healthier no sugar versions.  Peanut-butter and Jelly were the first 2 things to go. I was actually surprised to see sugar in peanut-butter.

Luckily, my granola is still a big hit with the kids, and today they even added blueberries to it.  Major score with Jared! <3  He was definitely impressed.  Lunches were scheduled to be egg salad, but this preggo mama is not feeling it.  So today we are going to do some left overs that we have including chicken noodle soup and meatballs.  All made with "real foods."  Along with that we will have some apple slices and triscuits.  YES! You can have triscuits!  here are less then 5 ingredients and NO sugar.

Tonight we are having a ham and cheese braid along with salad.  The bread is ww and cheese approved!  Speaking on bread. I did make the honey whole wheat bread and it was great. Jared loved it, while the rest of us used up the rest of the bread.  In my opinion that is definitely one of those acquired tastes.  So, instead of going cold turkey with the bread, I'm going back a little and doing half and half until we get used to it. Perfect? No, but it's a start!

What are you doing this week to change your eating habits?!

chicken pox

My baby has the chicken pox! :(  My husband has a terrible sinus infection and I discovered today that I have a fever and body aches.  Our son is the only healthy one and I pray he stays that way.  With 3 out of the 4 people in this house sick, it makes things very difficult. 

Eating has gone to the way side as no one has been hungry at the same time.  We have been snacking throughout the day and eating what we can when we can.  Lucky we decided to wait until Monday to start out little challenge since day 1 would have already gone up in flames!

Hope you and your family are doing well and healthy! 

Meal Plan for the First 4 Days

 I have come up with my meal plan for the first 4 days. 

DAY	BREAKFAST	LUNCH	SNACK	DINNER
Monday5	Granola Cereal with milk and fresh blueberries	Egg Salad(6 hard-boiled eggs mixed with mayo, salt, and mustard. Apple slices, cheddar squares	Apple and popcorn	Veggie Burgers
Tuesday6	Granola Cereal	PB & J(all fruit spread) raisins and ½ banana	Apples with Peanut butter	CX Fajitas on Whole wheat tortilla’s, Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream
Wednesday7	Granola Cereal	Left Over Egg Salad on ww bread with sliced apples and grapes	Fruit Kabob with apple, banana, grapes	Quesadillas with left over fajita mix. On whole wheat tortilla’s
Thursday 8	Granola Cereal	PB & J(all fruit spread) raisins and apples	Yogurt	Left Over Veggie Burgers?

Nothing difficult and yes we are having cereal all those days.  My husband and kids pretty much live off of this stuff. Plus over the weekend I plan to make some Whole Wheat banana pancakes to supplement if they get bored.  My son will eat oatmeal while my daughter won’t. So it will be a juggling act for breakfast. I need to make it as easy as possible since my husband is such a great guy and does the breakfast thing so I can sleep in.  Yes, he is that great. :D

You'll notice I decided to wait until Monday the 5th to start, as I honestly already have a meal plan in place for next week and this will give me a chance to look over items at the store to see prices and what fits into our price range.

What are you giving up?

 Everyone in my family is going to have to give up something that they love. Be it, the sugary ingredient filled cereal they love, the chocolate, or the drink of choice.

One thing I have been looking at today is my drink of choice.  Being pregnant I can, but choose not to, have caffeine.   I do have 1 small cup of coffee at church every Sunday for my fix.  As far as pop goes, I gave it up.  I have had 3 since finding out I was pregnant, and now will have none until the end!  With my other two pregnancies pop and chocolate were my number 1 craving.  With this one, pop tastes like acid and is way to sweet.  I guess that is the point huh?  I digress.

I choose to drink only water at this point.  Lately I had been getting tired of plain boring water.  Instead of switching to juice or some high calorie form of drink, I chose to drink crystal light.  By the gallons!!  I drink a good 65 oz a day, so I make a lot.  Last night, while drinking my amazing strawberry crystal light I grabbed the container to look at the ingredients.  My thoughts, it only has 5 calories so it can't have many ingredients. WRONG!

Ingredients listed: citric acid, Maltodetrin, Aspartame, Red 40, Calcium citrate, Acesulfame, potassium, artificial flavor, calcium silicate, magnesium oxide. 

WHAT?!?!  I don't even know what at least half of those are, nor could I pronounce them.  I was trying to stay away from acid and fake sugars. Guess what?! This is filled with acid and at least 2 different kinds of fake sugars from what I can tell.

I was a bit disappointed, but glad that I realized this now and not after my challenge!  It just goes to show that some things, even "low fat", are not healthy or "real."  Have you checked your pantries and refrigerators?! What did you find?? Were you as shocked as I was?