Someone around here has to cook

I have taken months and months off from cooking.  Yep, I told you I was ADD and I choose, well, my brain chooses, to decide to juggle only certain things for only so long.  And for a while, cooking has been one of the things I ignore.  And by ignore, I mean this:

“Hey, what do you want for Easter Dinner?” – Me

“Anything but toast.”  – Bill

“Brownies” – JP

So this week, I was talking to a personal trainer at my gym about why after this week’s 3 circuit classes, 2 Zumba classes, a Body Flow, and a Barre Fitness class combined with our Ballroom dance class, I haven’t lost any weight.  He wondered what I was eating and suggested I write everything down for a week. 

My reply answered it all,  “For breakfast, I ate 2 pieces of cake, half a pack of Starburst, and an orange pop.  Lunch was school lunch where I wolfed down a corndog dipped in ranch and a cheese dipper without even thinking about what was going in my mouth.  Right after lunch, I had a dilly bar.  Then it was 2:00 PM.” 

I have no idea why I haven’t dropped any weight.  HAHAHAHA

So at Ballroom dance, it was decided that this weekend would be the sugar detox project.  I am so hungry.  Without junk, there is nothing left to enjoy in life.  And to make things worse, I had to do the major grocery run – you know, the $250 variety?  The kind that drives me to Sam’s Club the day before Easter (where they are handing out free cans of pop?)  It was the kind where you grab Oreo’s and throw them in the cart because, hello, who doesn’t love Oreo’s?  I can’t eat them, but I can own them, and now I do.  But I bought what I need to make all of the following and the kids, Bill, and I are going to suffer through a healthy batch of meals this week.  I will keep you posted.

Santa Fe Chicken Packets

Clean Pulled Pork

Southwest Stuffed Bell Peppers

Creamy Quinoa Primavera

Pineapple Chicken Kabobs

Overnight Oatmeal

Here goes 4 months of torture, and no, I won’t learn to love it

Yep, it has been way too long since I ate like I should.  I am starting a 4 month clean-up.  Why 4 months?  Because I am going to Jamaica in about 4 months.  I don’t want to look like a bloated flab of lumps and stripes on the beach.  I don’t want to be one of those people who other people look at, lean over to their friends and say, “Someone should have told her she doesn’t look good in that”  even though I am wearing an Amish dress-style swim suit that covers me head to toe.  The stripes are here to stay, the flab I can do something about.  Bill is joining in too mostly because I do the cooking around here and secondarily because he doesn’t want to look like crap next to my hotness.  We also are going to exercise.  Please pray.

Here is my plan for the work week:

For Breakfasts: Breakfast cookies and egg whites of some sort (Maybe scrambled with spinach or maybe hard boiled?  Mini Frittatas maybe even.)  Grapefruit.

For Mid-day Snacks: Greek Yogurt,  Energy Bars, apples, oranges

Monday – Clean Waffles  The kids can smother theirs in butter, chocolate chips and syrup, I will find some other option.  Maybe organic PB and bananas.  Or maybe berries.  Crap, what is happening to me?

Tuesday – Vegetarian Chili – sour cream replaced by plain Greek yogurt.  No cheese for me.  No Doritos.  BOOOOHOOOOO 

Wednesday – This will be the hardest night – Bill and I usually go out for date night.  Clean Fajitas   Oh please, oh please be good.  We probably also need something sweet because we always eat something sweet.  Chocolate Banana Smoothies?? 

Thursday – Chicken Taco Wraps  Using Plain Greek Yogurt instead of Sour Cream, of course.

Friday – Home Alone!!!  I don’t have to plan anything fancy!!  Sweet Potato Fries Dipped in Ranch – I wish.  Probably left overs.

Late-night snacks – I am not eating them.  Period.  I will be fasting after dinner every night, and will be journaling.  And exercising.  And reading my Bible. If the Bible is daily bread, I should get my carb fill.  And I will be going to bed earlier because I cant be healthy if I don’t have enough sleep. 

I read this list to Bill and he rolled his eyes and whined about it.  Well, I watched the PX90 infomercial today and got all educated in the world of pyrotechnics or plyometrics – whatever – so I expect him to look like this in 4 months:

Source

Complete with the little tiny swimsuit.  Minus all the veins popping out. 

Hip Hip Hooray!!

Today, I accomplished so much I am proud of myself and I learned a few things along the way.  My day began at 7:30 AM when Lucy decided we had gotten enough sleep.  I couldn’t pass her off onto anyone else because I was home alone.  Dang.  I decided at that moment to get started on my massive to-do list. 

Dear City Sewage System,

I am sorry that I used way more than my share of water today.  I washed 11 loads of laundry using my front loader.  Do you know how much laundry that is?  I washed all my bedding, bathroom rugs, and even the snow pants, hats, scarves, and mittens (on top of the clothes piled high.)  I am so proud of the fact that I folded it all too.  The mountain of clean stuff was amazing, probably the highest point in ND.  I also cleaned the bathrooms and ran the dishwasher.  Sorry.  I will conserve another day.

Love, Rebel Me

I also learned that rubber-backed rugs can and will adhere to laminate wood flooring.  I learned this the hard way when I pulled up the entryway rug to mop under it and half of the rug stuck to the floor.  I had to work in increments (it is a danger to get the arm fat flapping too wildly) but I scrubbed it all off.  The rubber backing doesn’t know about my OCD floor shining fetish.  It is now clean, and I have a reason to go rug shopping tomorrow. 

Another important lesson we learned around here is that dogs can smell anhydrous ammonia before people can.  Lucy kept whining at the back door and I was stinkin’ sick of it because I was in the cleaning zone…don’t interrupt that…and I wasn’t in the mood to let her out every 10 minutes so she could stand on our patio and sniff the air.  (Side note:  did you notice how I said “patio”?  We are officially snow free in the back yard!!!!)  I guess what she was trying to tell me was that there was a leak just south of town and I needed to shut the air exchanger off.  I figured that out when I got my very first ever Code Red call.  Caller ID said “Emergency Comm” so I answered it, and they told me to shut my windows and stay inside.   OK.  My biggest concern was that I hadn’t showered and if I had to evacuate, I wasn’t a pretty site.  Petty, huh?  My thinking is that whoever is stealing anhydrous to make meth better have been smart enough to not have driven or walked through the mud because I watched Dateline all day today and they will be caught!!

I also worked on my menu plan for the upcoming week.  This past Friday’s plans changed so I didn’t get to the menu item.  Other than that, all meals were successful and I fed my family!! 

3 cheers for supper every night, clean laundry, and a spit shined bathroom!!  It was a successful week around these parts!

Insanely busy families need to eat too!

Jeez, all this running around like a chicken with my head cut off has left my family and me deserted in the supper category.  This week, we ate both McDonalds and Little Caesars, and those were the good nights.  When Bill offered to do more of the evening running so my week wouldn’t be so nuts, I read that as, “I don’t mean to complain but will you please figure out how to juggle all this AND cook supper?”  So this weekend, I sat at the computer for hours and came up with a plan.  I then went to Sam’s club and dropped $150 and then to the local grocery store and dropped another $150 and I **hope** we have what we need for a couple weeks worth of menus.  (I try to feed our family of six for $550 a month.  When I was the coupon queen, I did it for $400!  Who has time for that these days?)

So, my goals concerning our meal plans are fourfold:

1. Food I can pull off with little effort during the week
2. Food my kids will actually eat
3. A monthly food budget of $550 or less
4. Follow as closely to clean eating guidelines as I can

The product of all this is a rough draft of our downloadable weekly menu plan complete with a grocery list.  I don’t assume it is perfect, I am sure I missed a couple things, so as I work through it more, I will update.  However, some of you are asking for it now.  Of course, you will have to look at the recipes and the amounts of food each produces and based off your family needs, change up the amounts on the grocery list.  Also, if you have left over meats, shred and freeze them – I will work my left overs into following recipes. (For example, I bought a rotisserie chicken and wont use the whole thing this week.  I also bought pork tenderloin cuts in bulk from Sam’s for $1.98 a pound, so most of it went in the freezer.)

Two recipes you will need for the menu plan (introduced to me by Dr. Angie):

Chicken Craisin Salad

• Fresh Chopped Romaine
• Shredded Rotisserie Chicken
• Craisins
• Toasted Almonds
• Feta Cheese
• Raspberry Vinaigrette

Strawberry Jell-o (ingredients not in list)

2 Pkg (3 oz.) strawberry Jell-o

2 C Boiling water (use the juice from the pineapple as some of the liquid)

1 Med Can crushed pineapple, drained

1 Container frozen strawberries (partially thawed)

2 Lg Bananas, mashed

1 Carton Sour Cream

Dissolve Jell-o in boiling liquid; add pineapple, strawberries (with any juices), and bananas.  Pour 1/2 of the mixture into serving bowl.  Chill until firm.  spread sour cream over congealed layer.  Add remaining Jell-0 mix over congealed layer.  Chill until firm.

I also will make Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins for breakfast grab –n- goes.  (The ingredients for this are not listed on the downloadable plan.)

Alrighty then, if you have requests, suggestions or feedback, feel free to let it fly.  We will figure this out together!  Taxi Moms unite!