Vegetarian Ceviche

We made a Vegetarian Ceviche last week (and again last night) and I am officially in love. I got the full recipe here-Mine is below. My Mother in law made it for me the first time I tried it and we decided to try it ourselves last week. -Good Choice!

We used only 1 jalapeno (Didn't want it too hot for the kids)
We also didn't use the hearts of palm (although I've had it that way and it's pretty good) *Too expensive to buy 
We also put ours on tostada shells with refried beans.

How I made it:

2 tomatoes, diced

1/4 of large red onion, diced

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 jalapeno, diced

Juice from 2 limes (Also used it out of the bottom last night-tastes the same)

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt & pepper to taste 

avocado, diced

cucumber, diced

Bell pepper, diced

*All you do is chop everything up and mix it together. Heat up some refried beans to spread across the tostada and add ceviche on top. Super easy and yummy. We all love it including my kids. This one will definitely be made regularly.

5.5 Miles

My husband will often go to Sprouts Market to get some yummy fruits & veggies and will take the girls in the jogging stroller. It never seemed like it was that far - the hardest part is the hill. So when he mentioned going yesterday and not taking the car, so he can get his run in I thought why don't I go with him? I've been feeling fat and haven't been doing any workout lately, so this sounded like a great idea. WELL...turns out that this "little jog" to the market is actually 5.5 miles round trip and of course my husband is all about pushing limits and doing your best. So of course I had to job the majority of the way and ALL the way up the hill. This of course would've been a lot better experience if I was in some short of physical shape, but I have honestly not ran for at least 2 months now and can hardly ever find time to do any work out. We made it home in one piece and surprisingly I felt okay. However, just like always when I push myself, without preparation, my body starts to shut down and feel sick. So to bed I went at 7:30 pm with ibuprofen instead of dinner. On a more happy note: I woke up this morning :) and once I got my green smoothie in my body I feel great!

September Menu

September Menu

This is the first month I’ve done it this way, so I'm sure there will be some editing to future months.

I first went over all our schedules (mine, hubs, and girls) then planned

out a type of dinner that would work best each night.

Monday: Simple (something I could make and Shaun could take to school)
*Hubs takes 4yr old to gymnastics this night and then goes straight to class*

Tuesday: Crockpot
*We are both gone all day and get home right before dinner*

Wednesday: Lite
*I go to Zumba this night, so I want to eat something super lite when I get
home*

Thursday: Pre-made
*We are both gone all day, so I’d like to have something previously made and
frozen that we can just toss in the oven*

Friday: Husband's choice
*He is home before I get off work, so he gets to decide and make dinner*

Saturday: Out or leftovers
*We usually are out and about this day, so we get to decide to eat out or
leftovers* (We don’t eat out more then twice a month and usually use some
kind of coupon.)

Sunday: -
*I don’t plan anything because we go to in-laws a lot this day or we are
starving because we get out of church at 2 and then aren’t hungry for dinner*

Next I got out a calendar and planned different meals for the days of the
week that we’d be home. There were a few days that we had special events
or knew we’d be gone that night, so I didn’t plan meals for those. So when I
got done I had; for example, 4 Monday meals, 5 Tuesday, 3 Wednesday…and I
also planned special things like desserts for after family night. I also wanted to start making breakfast on Sunday mornings, so I planned those out
as well.

Mondays:
Corn & Zucchini Quesadillas
BBQ Chicken Ranch Wraps
Bean & Cheese Burritos
BBQ Chicken Salad

Tuesdays:
BBQ Chicken Crockpot meal
Potato Soup
Chicken Fajitas
Enchilada Soup

Wednesdays:
Homemade Pizzas
Spaghetti Squash w/marinara sauce
Stack Dinners

Thursdays:
Enchiladas
Pasta Bake (which was awful!)
Sweet & Sour Chicken & Rice
Taco Soup

Fridays:
Red Beans & Rice
Pork, veggie, & fruit
Hamburger Spins

Sunday Breakfasts:
Pancake Bites
Cinnamon Rolls & Fruit
Crepes

Family Night Desserts:
Baked Churros
Brownies
Arroz con leche

After that I went through all the recipes and made a list of ingredients I would
need. I wrote out all the ingredients and then went through my kitchen and
crossed off the stuff I already had. I finished up my list adding breakfast
stuff to the list (cereal, oatmeal…) and lunch stuff and then the usual (bread,
milk, eggs, fruit) and I planned a store trip when my hubby could watch our
youngest and went to the store! I picked up most things for the entire month. We made a few extra trips for fruit & veggies and then I didn't plan well for my daughter's bday, so I had to get stuff for that. Total for the month we spent $266 for our family of four.

This may sound like it took a long time, but the planning was like maybe 2
hours on a Sunday afternoon. (recipes of things I hadn’t previously made I got
from pinterest, so those were all in one place and easy to look up) And I made sure I went to the store on a separate day, so I wasn’t too overwhelmed or exhausted.

Here are pictures of our meals:

Red Beans & Rice w/Squash and Zucchini

Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls w/Fruit

Chicken Fajitas

Pork Chops, Potatoes, & Veggies

Homemade Pizza

Corn & Zucchini Quesadillas

Pasta & Salad

BBQ Chicken Salad

Sweet & Sour Chicken w/Rice and Cabbage & Carrots

Taco Soup

Dairy...Not for Us

Then

I never liked to drink milk. I stopped all together when I was younger; didn't even drink it on my cereal. Naturally, I became lactose intolerant. I was never completely dairy free because of my love for ice cream and ranch dressing:) so basically I'd eat those two things and get sick. Most people thought I was odd. (I've soon discovered it is in fact opposite and that they are the weird ones for still drinking milk.) However, when I got married my husband got me hooked on cheese. Not just any cheese-only Tillamook cheese, the good stuff, and so I started eating nachos, quesadillas, bean and cheese burritos along with my ice cream and ranch dressing...

Now

We will be cutting dairy out of our diet completely (We've haven't bought cow milk for months-Almond Breeze has worked perfect for cereal and cooking). My husband, me, and my two girls will be much healthier for it!

How we came to this

My husband and I have been doing a bit more research in our progression to eat healthier. We've known for awhile that dairy wasn't good for us. (My Mother-in-law would remind us constantly-thank you) I've noticed we, Americans, are the only ones who still drink milk as adults. I've heard different things about dairy throughout researching and that it will cause this sort of disease, but then hear another argument to contradict that one. And it's all a bit of confusing. Who the heck do you believe?! We decided to believe the one that makes the most sense to us. A friend let me borrow a book The Beauty Detox Solution. (I would recommend this book-gives some great tips and good research) I've been reading it and along with my husband's research we came to this decision. It wont be easy at first, but I think it will be beneficial long term. Along with the fact that dairy already makes me sick, here are a few other reasons why we've decided to stop:

-All mammals drink milk from their mothers. We are all weaned off from our Mothers within the first few years of our life and move to other foods that provide the nutrition needed. This is natural. What is not natural is that we've moved to cow's milk. Baby cows don't even drink their mother's milk anymore yet we do. Sick...

-Dangerous protein in dariy-Casein. This is very difficult for our bodies to break down. This is the one animal protein that seems to promote cancer. Dairy also produces too much mucus for our bodies that can harden and line the walls of our intestines making it super hard to digest. 

-There are other foods that can give us the needed calcium and they all have other great nutrients in them as well.  

-Much of our dairy today is packed with hormones and drugs because of the demands of producing it commercially. Dairy products are also heated to kill any potential bacteria which is also killing any natural enzymes making digesting even more difficult.

-The mass production of dairy cows is awful and sicking if you were to see it firsthand. 

I've been kind and vague with these reasons, but if you do any research yourself you will be surprised and what you find. I promise you will question yourself whether or not you should be taking it out of your diet. And no wonder my body has such a hard time digesting it-it just makes sense! 

Good Day

I felt I did rather well with eating healthier today...

Breakfast: Green Smoothie

Snack: Whole Wheat toast with a little coconut butter

Lunch: Vegetable Beef Soup and Wheat Crackers

Snack: Craisins & Energy Bites

*It was all tasty to eat and I actually feel full, so I will probably eat something very lite for dinner.

(http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-bake-energy-bites-recipe.html)

I just wish that I didn't have to sit on my bum all day at work. Good thing I'm going to Zumba tonight!

New Orleans Vacation

New Orleans

June 30th-July 5th, 2012 

(Jackson Square)

My hubby and I had a great vacation in New Orleans. I think what stuck out to me the most was the people. I miss them. Seriously. Everybody was so friendly and laid back. I feel like we did okay staying within our budget. However, I did learn a few things about a good vacation budget:


Make a budge- We had a certain amount in mind. I put savings away from my Christmas bonus from the previous year for this vacation, so we took the cash with us and wanted to only spend that on everything (minus any big tours if we decided to do one). We didn't quite succeed on this as planned because...


Research Food Costs- We figured we'd spend quite a bit on food, but not quite as much as we did. The biggest problem was we planned on buying stuff from a grocery store and eating at the hotel (came with a kitchenette). However, we could not find one until the our last day there! And it was still kind of pricey...so we had to eat out for every meal AND that got expensive.


Try to stay away from tourism- There were some tours (plantation/alligator/cemetery) that looked fun, but not worth the money. I'd recommend doing them if you really really want to because you'll regret it if you don't (I learned this by skipping a broadway show in New York), but I had already visited a plantation in South Carolina, so instead we just walked around a neighborhood and rode the trolley down St. Charles to see some of the unique houses, which was awesome. Instead of going on an alligator tour in the 100 degree humid weather we tried some alligator on a pizza :) Not quite the same, but worked. Instead of taking a cemetery tour for WAY too much money we hopped the trolley and walked around ourselves. That way we could go at our own pace. I even did some internet searching before about the cemeteries. It was perfect and saved us a ton of $$.

Don't always take the easy way- Instead of taking the easy taxi from the airport to the hotel we decided to save $30 and take the bus. Yes, it took us 3 times as long, but we got to see some of the city and meet some great people! We waited about an hour for the city bus, which we had to change buses and wait for another (20 min), but we met this awesome guy from Australia who backpacks all over the place and this other guy from Colorado. Then we walked with our luggage to catch the trolley (30 min). It was hot and we were drenched in sweat, but I wouldn't change what we did. We felt like we were really getting to know New Orleans. However, we knew better and took the taxi back to the airport when we left-didn't want to risk missing our flight!

Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures 

Authors: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

    Ethan Wate is haunted by dreams of a girl he's never met. When Lena Duchannes moves into his small southern town of Gatlin County, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her. And he is determined to uncover the strange connection between them, even if it means uncovering the one secret that could change everything.

My Thoughts:

This book was a bit intimidating because of it's size and was a little different then what I'm used to reading. The first half of the book was entertaining, but I wasn't glued into like I have been with other books. The second half kept my attention and wanting to read more. It's definitely a young adult, which is perfect for me, as I'm still a newer reader. It's got high school romance, witches, light vs dark, southern voo-doo, and deals a bit with family death. I found it fun to read and would recommend to others. It's also part of a trilogy, so I will be reading the others as well.