Category: Stay at Home Mom

Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Delicious Apple Bread

Hannah Lucio

Oh my goodness this bread is amazing!!! It is not really “healthy” but eating strict is not my forte. Plus, restricting myself from everything is not really healthy to do. Moderation and self control helps me the most. And kicking butt at the gym 🙂

I made it up at the last minute. I really had no intention to try anything other than make sandwich bread. I just thought, hmm I wonder if this would taste good. And bam! This is a type of bread I am going to make every time I make bread. I double this bread recipe and made this apple bread as a “side” bread. Seriously, its that yummy!

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Almond Milk (or regular milk)

5 tsp Granulated sugar

1 tsp Salt

5 tsp Butter (I used salted butter)

2 1/2 tsp Yeast (I only use fleischmann’s)

1 Cup Warm Water

3 1/2 Cup Flour

Ingredients for the apple bread:

1 Apple (I used Pink Lady apples) pealed, cut into small pieces

Cinnamon

Granulated sugar

softened butter

The bread recipe has to rise for an hour first. Also, cook the apple pieces in a small pan until just cooked (soft). I put enough water in the pan to cover the apple pieces. 

Here is the Recipe for the bread. After I rolled up the bread, I put the bread pan next to the roll and cut the ends off with a sharp knife. Put the perfect fit bread roll into the pan. The two left over ends of the roll I unrolled and flattened into a rectangle shape with a rolling pin. I spread a thin layer of butter on top. Then I sprinkled granulated sugar and cinnamon on top. I had no idea how much to add because this is my first time making it. So I just put as much as I thought would be good. When done with the cinnamon and sugar put 4 small chunks of butter on top. When ready start from longest side and tightly roll up. Pinch the ends together and put into the pan with the seam down. This is what it looks like: Set aside and let it rise with the rest of the bread. Put in the oven and bake for 30 minutes with the sandwich bread. Take out and test the bottom of the pan to see if it is done. I have never had bread that needs to be in longer than the 30 minutes. Once you take it out of the oven take it out of the pan and cool off on the cooling rack.  This bread taste SO good and I hope you try it out.

 

 

Have A Wonderful and Amazing Sunday!

Live Simple!

Family, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Today’s a good day, for a good day!! Workout included

Hannah Lucio

I cannot believe that our family actually got 9 hours of sleep last night. With two kids (age 3 and 8 months) it’s pretty rare. Thank the Lord for the sleep! The night before I got 5 hours so it’s a blessing for sure. 
Today I had an amazing workout and wanted to share. I love to change things up and I hope you try this workout! 

First I need to get this out of the way. I “rest” but not in the traditional way. My “rest” is typically by working out another part of my body. It makes me burn more and it feels amazing afterwards. 

Here’s my workout for today:

Put your bench at a 45 degree angle and do the following, I only use 10 lb weights because it burns doing 3 in one’s

1 incline dumbbell curl

1 incline dumbbell fly

1 incline dumbbell press

Repeat 11 more times

*at your “rest” time do 12 lunges on each side

Repeat above for a total of 3 sets of 12

Next workout, smith machine:

12 squats

*at your rest time* do 12 push ups

Repeat above for a total of 3 sets of 12

Next workout on a mat:

12 crunches

12 side crunches each side

20 bicycle crunches

12 push ups

12 side plank dips

25 outside leg lifts

25 inside leg lifts

12 plank dips-opposite side from before

25 outside leg lifts-opposite side from before

25 inside leg lifts-opposite side from before

*I actually rest for one minute

Repeat above for a total of 3 sets
And stretch

Voila! Done! Such a great workout! 
Have a wonderful Day! 

Live fit

Live simple 

breastfeeding, debt, Family, Food, pregnancy, prenatal, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized

Goals Met….and Homemade Pizza Recipe

Hannah Lucio

I firmly believe if you set your mind to something you can achieve that goal.

This morning when I put on my pants I was able to tighten my belt one notch!! That is amazing!

My first goal was to lose the weight I gained, check. I was at my pre baby weight way faster than last time. Thankfully! I am also at my first weight goal-125 lbs. That has honestly been my goal almost my entire life. For some reason being this exact weight I feel great! I know that if I were famous I would be considered obese, but I’m not.

The second was to get stronger than I have ever been, check.

I have no idea why it is easier this time around. Maybe I have a bit more motivation since I know I will not be getting pregnant again.

My next goal is to tone up more and lose 5-10 more lbs. I just want to be a bit slimmer and toned more. If they are right about holding onto 10 lbs of fat when you are breastfeeding, then Ill just have to wait for a year and a half if he breastfeeds that long, Lord willing.

I want to encourage to women who have negative people around them. Especially about baby weight. It is possible to lose the baby weight, it is possible to workout when you have children, it is all possible. I am super thankful to have a supportive husband also. Without him, this all would be a lot tougher.

Get up and go.

I used to have all the excuses in the world not to get up and workout but I feel SO amazing after. I just keep going and training my body in different ways so I don’t get caught up in the mundane. I also limit my cardio and lift more weights. I used to be more about cardio but I really want to just tone. I am pushing my body more and more and constantly.

Also, kids love to be active and if you are active with them then you can get a lot of exercise. Don’t forget to eat healthier. I am not the healthiest eater but I do not over eat, that’s for sure. Except when it comes to pizza nights. Every Friday I make homemade pizza…..YUMMY! Speaking of pizza on Friday nights, I am off to start making it! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Live healthy

Live Simple

breastfeeding, Family, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Awesome Workout: Feel the burn

Hannah Lucio

I just did made up this workout this morning and wow does it burn. I loved it SO much I had to share. This week I have been killings it at the gym and it’s starting to feel awesome! Thankfully. I’ve started doing none weighted lunges daily and at least 36 push-ups daily. 3 sets of 12. Thankfully those are getting easier to do also. I have to add that on top of this workout I did 20 minutes of cardio and weighted back workouts. Awesome workout overall today!

So here’s the Workout Burnout:
12 crunches

12 side crunches-each side

12 bicycle crunches

12 push ups

12 side plank dips

20 outside leg lifts

20 inside legs lifts

12 side planks dips-other side

20 outside leg lifts-other side

20 inside leg lifts-other side

Rest 1 minute

Repeat

Rest 1 minute

Repeat
Hope you try it and let me know how you feel.

This is my progress at 7 months post partum 

Live fit

Love simple

debt, Family, Food, money, pregnancy, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Simple Homemade Bread Recipe

Hannah Lucio

This bread recipe I have been making for a really long time. I just started to make it again because it is way cheaper, you know all the ingredients and it is super yummy! Homemade bread just tastes SO much better than store bought. In my opinion. It is super easy and there are not a ton of ingredients.

Here are a few tips to start out with: I make it with almond milk. Almond milk? Last night when I made it, I swear it actually tastes better than when I used regular milk. Try it out! I used Silk almond milk Regular. Im sure you can use any kind but that is what I used. If you want to use cow milk that is perfectly fine also, just giving you an option. I also used salted butter last night, I really do not like salt but when I went to Costco and bought butter…..I accidentally bought salted :(((  So if all you have is salted, It’ll still taste yummy! Also, this time around I used unbleached white flour, that was all I had in the house. I have used whole wheat also and it tastes great! If you want to try to have whole wheat flour I suggest starting with 50/50 blend. 50% white, 50% whole wheat. Whole wheat flour bakes a little differently so the bread texture is a little different. I have found that you may need more of less whole wheat flour versus white flour alone.

What you need: 2 bread pans or just cut the recipe in half to make 1 loaf. Easy. Cooking spray or just use butter in the loaf pan(s) so the bread does not stick. And of course the ingredients 🙂

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Silk Almond milk

3 Tbsp Sugar

2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp melted butter

5 tsp yeast (I only use fleischmann’s yeast=amazing)

1 cup warm water

7 cups flour

Warm up your mixing bowl by filling the bottom up with warm/hot water. Let it sit for a minute and pour out.

  1. In warm mixing bowl add 1 cup warm water, yeast and 1 tsp of the 3 Tbsp. Set the rest of the sugar aside for later. Let yeast rise for about 5 minutes.
  2. Add melted butter, almond milk, sugar and salt to the yeast mixture. Mix until just mixed together.
  3. Add 4 cups of flour and mix with bread hook.
  4. Add 1 cup of flour at a time until your dough is sticky but not stuck to your finger when you touch it.
  5. Once you are done adding the flour mix the dough on low for 10 minutes.
  6. Take dough out and place onto a lightly floured surface.
  7. Grease the mixing bowl, I used butter to lightly grease the bowl. You can also you cooking spray if you like.
  8. Put the dough back into the greased bowl and place a clean and dry kitchen towel over the top. Let it rise for 1 hour. While you are waiting I suggest greasing the bread pans. Again, I use butter to grease the pans but you can use cooking spray. Clean up and relax and drink some coffee while your at it 🙂
  9. Once the hour is up; punch the dough down 2-3 times. Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough in half and set one-half aside. Roll one-half of the dough into a rectangle. Make sure the length is not longer than the bread pan. Tightly roll the dough (width wise) and pinch together so there is no seem. Place the bread into the greased bread pan.
  10. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
  11. Cover the bread pans with a clean and dry kitchen towel and let it rise for one hour.
  12. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I normally turn the oven on when I have 15 minutes left to wait.
  13. Place the bread carefully onto the middle rack in the oven and close the oven door super slowly so the bread does not collapse.
  14. Bake for 30 minutes
  15. What I’m going to tell you will sound painful but I honestly have never burnt may finger and I’ve done this A LOT. Put spit onto your finger and tap the middle of the pan to see if it sizzles. If it does then your bread is done. I was taught to test bread and rolls that way since I can even remember.
  16. Take bread out of pans right away. Let it cool on a cooling rack before slicing (good luck with that, HA) I love fresh out of the oven bread. Yum Yum

 

Enjoy!! I hope you love the bread as much as we do. We are already more than halfway done with the first loaf and I just made it last night.

Live Simple

debt, Family, Food, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized

Happy National Peanut Butter day

Hannah Lucio

I love peanut butter. Well, love may be an understatement. HA! Every single day I have an apple and peanut butter. Everyday! It is normally my lunch because it is easy, healthy and oh so delicious. I have to tell ya, I never had peanut butter and apple until I met my husband. He looked at me strangely when I told him that I have never had it together. I thought it sounded gross. Well, now I have it every single day HA-HA If you have never had it I highly recommend it. I have never gained a pound eating it regularly. If anything I have to thank the combo for being able to lose weight and keep it off. Thank you Jesus! It is also budget friendly. We buy our Organic apples every week at Costco. I have compared the price to grocery stores and it does cost maybe a dollar more over all. but I have to tell ya, the apples are amazing every time. At the grocery store they tend to not be as good around here. Not sure what that is all about.

I hope you get to eat some peanut butter today! Happy National Peanut Butter Day!

 

Live healthy

Live simple

debt, Family, Food, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Sneaky little veggies

Hannah Lucio

Finding different ways to add veggies into our diets is kind of fun. I noticed a few veggies I can sneak into our regular foods and it tastes amazing! Inexpensive and healthy.

I know people are going to recommend to me to take veggie pills and whatever else they sell to try to make some money. But me, I do not want them nor will I try them. I am not closed minded, I just don’t want them.  I really am just a mom trying to get us to love veggies. We should be eating our veggies anyway, right? Ok. So I wanted to share the ways I sneak in our greens.

  1. I make smoothies every morning for our family. I add a lot of greens in this because I feel like it is the best way to start your day. Besides black coffee 🙂
  2. I chop up cauliflower, bell peppers and broccoli into small little pieces. I add them to our weekly pizza. Have you watched the movie Inside Out? I can hear Anger saying, congratulations Hannah, you officially ruined pizza. Ha-ha!! Great movie btw. I also add them to my favorite meal. Black beans and ground turkey with taco seasoning. Oh my goodness this really yummy!
  3. When adding onions into a recipe, grate instead of chopping. It hides it well and our 3 year old never says anything. 

Just two simple ways to add veggies. And, the best part…..our 3 year old absolutely loves it! He eats a lot of it and has not complained about eating his veggies. The key to adding them to your foods is by cutting them into smaller pieces.  I hope this can help someone trying to add veggies into yours and your kids diets. Without pills.

 

Eat Organic

Live Healthy

Live Simple

debt, Family, Food, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Dreaming of Spring time

Hannah Lucio

I absolutely love when the kids take long naps, Ha-ha! I can relax with some hot coffee, a few red vines and catch up on VanderPump Rules. HA!

red-vines-and-spring-blog

Over here on the East coast we have some pretty cold winters. Since it is really cold we are not able to be outside as much. So it is a little bit of a bummer. But, as much as it is super cold over here in the winters we absolutely love it. There are actual seasons over here. And we are not planning on moving. We are coming up on our second year in Virginia and it has been amazing. In the fall we decided to get a kid carrier to pull behind us on our bikes. We also decided to get a geared bike for me so I can pull them easier. My husbands work is a tad further that it used to be so I will have to pull them a little further. That is not a problem. I am actually excited about this challenge. I absolutely love fitness! The thing about Spring that I am so excited about is to be able to have fun outside with the kids again. Brayden will be old enough to be in the kid carrier with Maverick. I cannot wait to hear their giggles when we ride. And, now that we are not having anymore kids I can enjoy being active with them. I can teach Maverick how to play basketball, play t-ball and start running. We are also going to move into a house when our lease is up and that is equally exciting! I’m not sure how many other people are thinking that Spring time, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. Until then we will be enjoying this rainy, colder and sometimes snowy weather.

I am really hoping everyone is having a wonderful beginning of the year! It not to late to start living healthy and a more positive simple life.

 

Live Positive

Live Simple

breastfeeding, debt, Family, Food, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Kefir….no thanks

Hannah Lucio

I have been curious about how I would feel after trying a few foods. We have been getting sick left and right after we started letting our boy go to Sunday School. We are a family that never gets sick. Ok, maybe once a year and it last’s about 3 days total. Now, since he has been going to Sunday school every week we have been sick all the time. He loves Sunday school so that is not really an option to not have him go. So I researched things to “boost” our immune system. One thing it said was that you literally cannot boost your immune system. So I looked for ways to get more “healthy” foods into our diet. Every day I make our smoothies and that has seemed to help a little. I read to add a probiotic into our diet. Kefir is one of the most mentioned probiotic that I saw on the websites. So I got it and tried it out. I have to mention that we are not a family that drinks milk or has a high dairy diet. I do top our meals with cheese but not more that a 1/4 cup at a time. When we need a milk like product we use Almond Milk. We are not allergic to dairy, but it is a choice we make to not have a lot of it. I actually watched a few documentaries this last week and it said that cow milk is actually not made for human consumption. Very interesting.Anyway,  I started adding Kefir to our smoothies and after two days pulled the plug on adding it.

What happened?

I felt fat, bloated, sluggish and worse off. Oh and I gained two pounds in two days. Yikes!  Our oldest son started getting hiccups after drinking it. And since I am breastfeeding Ill add that he was fussier than normal. It is very interesting to see how our bodies react to certain foods. I did not know that our body would react that quickly and make us feel worse.

Today is the first day back to our regular smoothies and we are all good to go. I have my regular boost of energy with the smoothies, our  oldest son did not have hiccups and our little guy has not been fussy.

That just means no milk products. Besides cheese , ha! Also, we are just going to have to deal with getting sick if it means our boy is happy at church. If you are feeling bloated all the time or sluggish check your diet. When I eat a certain way I have tons of energy and lose weight.

I also cannot eat a lot of protein because I will actually gain weight. Even if it is just plain chicken or protein shakes. No matter what the meat of protein alternative, I gain weight. Now, that is quite opposite of what healthy sites or magazines tell you. I think we should listen to what our bodies are telling us. Because we are all different. In this day in age we can learn so much! We should be taking advantage of all the information that is out there. I literally watch a documentary every day on Netflix about foods. Take advantage of it, I really enjoy learning!

 

Live Healthy

Live Simple

debt, Family, Food, Hair, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Happy 5 Years!!!

Hannah Lucio

It has officially been 5 years since I quit smoking! No, it was not a New years Resolution. It just so happened to be at the beginning of the year.

See, I met this guy. We went on our first date. That night I knew we were going to get married. I just knew it! I decided that night to quit smoking. Cold turkey. I did not want to lose him over some absolute disgusting habit. I had always wanted to quit and for some reason never had a “reason” to quit. Boy did I do an amazing thing by quitting. I am still married to that man and one day will write about our amazing story. It sounds to good to be true but it was truly meant to be. I love telling people about it!

I am so incredibly happy to have quit smoking and if you are wanting to quit, today’s the day!! Quit now! It is SO worth it!! It is not pretty, it ruins your skin, hair, you smell (yuck) and it is not healthy. And with the money you save you can also pay down your debt. Or save for a summer vaca, smoking is expensive ya’ll!

 

Live smoke free

Live simple