January 14th- 20th Dinner Planner

Time again to plan for dinner for next week. An important note for this week: the roast beef I made tonight (off my list from last week) is pulling double duty next week. I love that! Also, I put in one cheat meal as planned by my husband and myself. We decided every two weeks we could have what we call a cheat meal (meatloaf, enchilada, lasagna, anything really fat and calorie heavy). So with that in mind here are my meals for seven days.

1. Shredded Crunchy Pork Tacos (pork roast duty #1)
Refried beans / spanish rice
***note you can wet your corn tortillas up and stick them in the oven to crunch them up, no oil needed for a more lean option.

2. Roasted Veggie Soup (pork roast veggies pulling duty #2) (see recipe from a couple of weeks ago).
Wheat rolls

3. White Chili with chicken
Wheat rolls

4. Lemon & Dill Swai fish (talapia will work too)
Boiled red potatoes
Steamed Broccoli

5. Meatloaf
Mashed potatoes with brown gravy
Corn

6. Dry Rub BBQ Chicken
try Claire Robinson's (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/dry-rubbed-bbq-chicken-recipe/index.html)
Side salad
Roasted potatoes

7. Honey-Ginger Glazed Salmon (I found a great recipe on Cookinglight.com
on top of arugala salad
Fried Rice

Book Review - The Baby Whisperer

So night time has been quite tough with the baby. I can honestly say as a baby she has been my biggest challenge, she has also been the only baby I have breastfed up until now (she is 12 months). The little dear is waking up twice a night to feed or more like be comforted by her boobie which she is so fond of. Ready to call Nanny 911 for help, I reserved The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg. Now both of my older girls were Babywise babies, a technique that seemed to work for both for the most part especially my now 8 year old. But, by and by my little Cayleen was not to be a Babywise baby as she has more capacity to scream her head off for unlimited amounts of time. Desperate I turned to the Internet and found The Baby Whisperer.
Now this book is quite lengthy and covers quite a bit of information including EASY which is the flexible schedule Hogg believes baby should be on Eat, Activity, Sleep, You (parent) time, information on feeding baby, sleep patterns and solutions, and suggestions for babies of all stages up to toddler. Admittedly, I did not feel much of the book applied to my situation as my daughter is 12 months old, but I was pleased to see that she did address us parents who were reading and looking for help in the later stages.
Of course my main interest in the book was the sleeping portion. Now Hogg suggest what she calls the pu/pd method when it comes to training baby to sleep in her own bed. Pu/pd being pick up/put down. At my daughters age when she cries at 11pm then 2am, and then 5am rather than offer her my breast to get her to go back to sleep Hogg says to train her by staying by her side while she settles herself back down in her own crib. When my little one stands up in her crib I am supposed to immediately lay her back down. This process is to be continued until she falls completely asleep. Of course she also addresses eating along side sleep issues as being all part of one problem. If little one snacks all night she won't have as much an appetite during the day thus a vicious cycle.
So a few weeks ago desperate for help I began this process described above. The first bout was definitely a shock for my little one but eventually she did settle and go to sleep and it did get easier the next few nights. BUT alas, it was not meant to be as soon as it seemed I was making progress she came down with pneumonia and a terrible ear infection which completely undid everything I worked so hard on to begin with. As you can imagine nights were tough and she was up quite a bit. Thank the Lord she is completely over her illnesses now but a new monster has been born. She wakes every 2 hours now.
Two nights ago I began again the task of pick up/put down and it has been a very tough road. When she wakes up at 11pm she is wide awake and it takes over 2 hours for her to go back to sleep meaning that whole time I have to be in the room with her or she freaks out. According Hogg after she learns to settle herself back to sleep her waking at night should start to become minimal. We shall see. If this works and I continue to be persistent I will call her a genius, but well you know the rest.
I have read some book reviews of the same book and some are luke warm to her methods while others don't like her at all. I'm definitely willing to give it a go as I do not want to getting up with my baby when she is 2 years old. Mama has got to get some sleep!!! I will definitely give you my final opinion in the next month.
Bev

GO CINNAMON!!!

Okay this morning I was incredibly groggy when I woke up. I had been up and down all night long with the baby, so I thought I would sprinkle a little cinnamon in my morning coffee for a little something something special to make me feel better. Low and behold after taking my first drink I began to perk right up. It was a little miracle on my Sunday morning. So that got me thinking about what the other benefits of cinnamon are and I have found quite a few.
Some of the benefits I already knew like cinnamon being a great antioxidant and as I found out this morning, its literally a brain tonic boosting brain function. Other things I found was that it is good for arthritis, thought to be cancer preventing, helps cholesterol, helps blood sugar, fights heart disease, and many people use it for home remedies (http://www.homeremediesweb.com/cinnamon_health_benefits.php). There are lots of other benefits. Check out the two websites I found on the benefits of cinnamon and try sprinkling some cinnamon on your coffee and let me know if it works for you!

http://ezinearticles.com/?25-Health-Benefits-of-Cinnamon---A-Miraculous-Spice&id=1665340

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-cinnamon.html

Resolutions = GOALS

I don't know if the rest of you do resolutions...I as a norm have one major thing on my mind I would like to change and New Years always seems to be a good time to make that happen. However, I'm definitely not always successful, just like the over 50% of us out there that try and don't always succeed. But that's okay with me because sometimes you have to try over and over again before you are successful in changes you would like to make. And of course you know we don't have to wait until the new year in order to ring in the new changes, it just always seems like a good time to give it a go.
This year I have thought of some obtainable goals for myself to achieve this year and have even scheduled them into my daily planner. My resolutions total 13, yes, that's right 13 whopping resolutions or goals as I like to call them to work on this year. I can't guess the future and know that by the end of the year I'll have every single goal down to a T, but they are important to me and there is next year and the year after to work on myself cause I am a continuous work.
So I shall share my goals with you in hopes that I will stay more accountable to myself and maybe to you as well as the year progresses. I have even posted them on my online calendar so that I may refer to them often and check my progress.

1. I would like to take our kids on vacation this year. I'm not sure where yet, but within the next two months I would like to begin to plan and set money aside.

2. Manage our household money well. This is actually carried over from the end of last year. My husband and I sat and figured out where we stood financially and have made a conscience decision to put ourselves on a budget, cut out costs where we can, and stick to our plan.

3. Eat better. Well if you read Wednesday's meal planning blog I announced that the meals will officially be healthier. Once again my husband and I have made the decision that we need to stop bringing junk food into our house and incorporate fresher and healthier meals into our diets.

4. Exercise. Okay this is a goal that we have also discussed but have not yet put into motion yet as we want to take it step by step. Meaning we want to get our healthy eating down before we start a daily exercise routine. We are afraid if we do it all at once we might crash and burn so again one step at a time.

5. Spend time with God daily. This is something I always aspire to do and it always seems to go by the wayside. I have written it into my daily schedule and have been good this past week. I am working through the read the Bible in a year program. I believe this is important and can really help with my spirit and attitude through out the day.

6. Follow my routines. Well this is self explanatory, I just want to make sure I am staying on task daily and make sure my routines are completed each day so everything doesn't pile up on me on Saturday and Sunday when I should be spending time with my family.

7. Scrapbook time for myself. Another thing I LOVE to do but never set the time aside to do for myself. My poor daughter is 6 years old and I've barely completed her baby book and the poor baby, yep I got nothing for her yet. This is something I'm scheduling twice a week as me time and I look forward to it.

8. Work on our yards. Yes, our yards have been neglected since we moved in 2 years ago and I want to work on them little by little to improve them and make them a place for us to enjoy. I want to get the girls involved in it as well as a family project for us to do.

9. Enjoy my kids more. What more do I need to say, sometimes I need an attitude adjustment and a reminder of how lucky I am and how fast this time goes by.

10. Schedule my time more efficiently. I have sat down and broke my down into half hour increments and made a daily schedule which is flexible but shows me where my time is going so I can use my time wisely and not let it get eaten up by the computer and tv.

11. Start taking the baby to play group. This is an opportunity for us to get out of the house together on a regular weekly basis and some time for just her and I.

12. Daily Devotional with girls. I have purchased a daily devotional book for the girls to read with them each morning before school, I think they need the inspiration as much as I do before their busy days at school start.

13. Attend church regularly. This is something I have been lacking lately and this year Sunday mornings church will be a priority. It is important to be an example to my kids, they'll do as they are shown.

These 13 goals are things I will be blogging on in the future to let you know how I'm doing and maybe bring you information I have found to share with you.
Cheers to 2011
Bev

Family Night

Monday nights around my house are deemed our Family Night. Some of our family nights are spent playing board games and games off of our family Wii, but I also like to kick it up a notch see my list below for fun ideas for the whole family.

- Family video & picture night - get out the tapes and pictures and reflect together as a family.

- Take an outdoor nature hike

- Create a family totem pole. Use gradually increasing in size clay pots. Let everyone decorate they're own and then use acrylic to prevent the paint from coming off. Stack and glue the pots on top of each other. Place them in the garden.

- Make a family banner to hang up in your house.

- Have dinner at the park.

- Play croquet in the yard

- Play tag in the yard.

- Have a water balloon fight.

- Have a yearly family preparedness night. Make sure your family knows your fire escape plan and practice a fire drill. Make a survival kit or first aid kit. Teach the kids about CPR, choking, bleeding, and water safety.

- Have American Idol Night using the karaoke machine.

- Make a craft together.

Family night can be fun and most importantly it is that one special night that we make time to be together as a family. My kids look forward to it each week.

January 7-13th Dinner Plan

New Year Resolutions for my family are in!!! And eating more healthful is one of them, starting this week you be seeing meals with fresher ingredients and I will be cutting out over processed packaged foods (well for the most part), a lot of our red meat consumption and adding fish to our diet 2 times a week.
My husband I have decided that it is time to start eating right for our health and most importantly teaching our girls that eating well is the best thing to do and that it can be downright tasty. Beware I will be trying new recipes which I will note on the page if something is a first time use for me. I am going to be on a mad hunt to find fabulous recipes my family will love and hopefully you too. After I try the new recipe I will post my review on it and let you know whether it will be a repeat.
Also next week be watching out for some healthy breakfast ideas, lunch, and snack ideas.

Day 1
Skillet Curry Chicken (recipe below)
Roasted cauliflower and red potatoes tossed with garlic and olive oil

Day 2
Green salad topped with seared scallops
Served with Whole wheat dinner rolls

Day 3
Pork roast on top of vegetables in a crock pot

Day 4
Indonesian Grilled Fish (link for below, it is a swordfish, but I substitute other firm fish too)
(http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/indonesian-grilled-swordfish-recipe/index.html)
Sauteed fresh green beans
Bulgar pilaf with veggies

Day 5
Braised Pork chops
Steamed Broccoli
Low fat mashed potatoes (I used low fat sour cream and chives to make it tasty)

Day 6
40 Clove Garlic Chicken (substitute the alcohol with chicken stock in the recipe below)
(http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-with-forty-cloves-of-garlic-recipe/index.html)
Grits cooked in chicken stock and flavored with Parmesan cheese
Steamed Carrots

Day 7
Chicken Parmesan
Side salad
whole wheat pasta

Recipe for Skillet Curry Chicken by the Dinner Diva (Leann Ely)

Ingredients:
4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts 2 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper 1 lime quartered
1 tablespoon curry powder chopped cilantro

Directions:
Rub chicken with vinegar; sprinkle one side with salt, pepper, curry powder, and half flour. Place the chicken flour side down in hot skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle curry, salt, pepper, and flour on chicken side up in pan. Cook on each side approximately 5 minutes or until done all the way through. Serve with chopped cilantro and lime wedges.