Tag: delicious

Family, Food, Healthy food, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Family 30 Day Challenge

Hannah Lucio

Last night we had a family movie night, our boys absolutely love movie night. We had the typical junk food; Oreo’s, BBQ chips and sprite. Not my pick but the boys pick from the store. I do not promote these types of foods for our boys, but I do also bend a little bit so I am not that “strict mom”. I am also not the only one that makes decisions for our family, so there’s that. We rented Toy Story 2 since the boys haven’t watched it yet. Maverick proceeds to eat chips like he was in a food eating contest, drank his little cup of Sprite super-fast and had about 4 Oreo’s. We warned him and told him he would get sick if he didn’t stop inhaling his chips. A 5-year-old typically doesn’t have that mindset yet. I cringed watching him eat and just kept thinking that this is not a good idea. I hate seeing them eat crap food, I literally hate it. After the movie was done, apparently the Oreo’s were not put away, Maverick was running around the house eating Oreo’s. I just thought he was running around while I did the dishes. No, he was consuming more crap.
So, one may tell me, “You are the mom just take it away.” “Don’t buy these foods, the kids can’t buy it themselves” or “You can stop him from eating too much”. Well, I do have to remind people that in life you must choose your battles. And sometimes people just need a learning experience. For years I have been on my husband about our boy’s food and feel like a strict broken record. I go through fazes and eat strict healthy and then get a little lax on things. I take things away and then give it back. Yes, it all comes down to be my fault and I need to be more consistent.
Well, last night Maverick threw up. I did not know or hear it, my husband did. My husband had to clean it all up and said it was a learning experience. He also told our son that he needs to listen to us and that we are going to cut out junk food. A part of me was happy to hear that it was a wakeup call for them and the other part of me cringed at the damage his body went through. So, this morning I told my husband that we are going to do a 30-day challenge with our family. 30 days without junk sweets, soda and junk foods. Our timeline will be perfect, in 30 days we should be closing escrow on our new (to us) home. We can celebrate with homemade cookies, by then I should be able to find a healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe.
So, what does this look like for me as a mom? I am on a journey to be the “strict mom” of food that comes into our home. I have no choice. To add more veggies into our diets, healthy fats, healthy green smoothies without apple juice. To have less “snack foods” and to make sure our boys eat their meals. And living a healthier lifestyle that I have been craving for our family. This is such a great and exciting time of our lives, even though I may be the only one excited about being healthy.
If you have any healthy recipes, green smoothies or toddler foods that they love, please let me know.

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

Delicious and Healthy Breakfast for the Family

Hannah Lucio

To start off, we are foodies at heart. I love to cook, bake, eat chips and sweets. But as we age it starts getting harder and harder to control our weight. Our bodies start to hold onto fat and weight easier, that means we need to be more aware of what we eat and how we workout. Both me and my husband are feeling it so I’m changing our food intake and we are working out better. Of course we are not strict but I’ve made a few changes. I firmly believe that diet should be a balance of 80% healthy 20% not so healthy. That way when you change the food you eat you don’t binge because you miss EVERYTHING. At least that is what I have been finding out for ourselves. So we have committed to changing our diets and it isn’t just a New Years resolution, it’s a life change. I am making more of an effort and really enjoying it so far. I absolutely love shopping at Costco, they have a far better selection and it really saves us money. Especially since we all eating the same kind of meals. I also should add that we are doing more low carb and higher protein meals. Here is a look at what our breakfast have been so far and we all haven’t gotten sick of it yet. It’s delicious!!

Husband gets:

2 whole eggs, 4 egg white

1 Tbsp Salsa (picture below)

1 Tbsp Almond Milk (picture below)

2 Sausage patties (picture below)

Cooked in 1 Tbsp Kerrygold butter

Me:

1 Whole Egg, 2 Egg whites

2 tsp Salsa (picture below)

1 tsp Almond Milk (picture below)

1 Sausage Patty

Cooked in 1 Tbsp Kerrygold butter

4 Year old boy:

1 Whole Egg

1 Sausage Patty

Cooked in 1/2 Tbsp Kerrygold butter

1 Year old:

1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese

1/2 Cup Frozen Blueberries

This is what works for us and may not for someone else but it’s something you can look at and try it out. Me and my hubby drink straight black coffee also. If you aren’t a fan of black coffee, I hear ya. But with a little patience and practice you can learn to love it! It is also way healthier than adding creamers and other junk. There are so many different brands, flavors, boldness and other factors to try out. I prefer Pete’s coffee or any other organic dark coffee. I also buy whole bean and grind it myself. Why? Because I have noticed the already ground coffee is oily and doesn’t have as much flavor. Just something to consider.

I also have to add, my 1 year old is extremely picky (shocking right?) and teething. He loves the blueberries because they taste good but also they help numb his teeth. He lives off of Dino nuggets and I’m fine with that….for now. That is why he eats cheese and blueberries for breakfast, don’t judge hahaha

Oh! Also, I started buying block cheddar cheese because it has way less ingredients. It seriously tastes SO much better! If you need quick stuff just pre-shred your cheese and put it in a glass container in the fridge. I won’t be going back to bagged shredded cheese ever again. It’s completely different and super yummy!!

I added pictures of the brands below that we made for breakfast. Of course it doesn’t have to be exact but this is what we use and it’s delicious. Everything is from Costco, it saves us a lot! I am usually not a fan of sausage but this is a no junk sausage patty. And the most delicious sausage patty I’ve ever had, seriously.

And always remember to mix things up. The day after I posted this blog post I made this:

I made our eggs with about 1 cup of cooked broccoli from last nights dinner and added avocado. Super delicious!

If you feel good, you look good.

Stay at Home Mom

No bake Oatmeal Raisin Protein Bites

Hannah Lucio

My husband and I absolutely loves Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I was about to make my normal Healthy No-bake Energy Bites and Simple To Make and thought….hmm maybe I can try to make a different version that everyone would love. Ya’ll!! They are SO good! They taste like oatmeal raisin cookie dough. De-licious!! I really hope you get to try them and let me know how you like them.

So I started out with the typical Oatmeal, peanut butter, flaxseed, honey, vanilla but this time I added; raisins and cinnamon. This time around I did not add a lot of cinnamon because I’ve done that before in recipes and it was not good. So to keep it on the “safe side” I added just enough. You can also tweak the recipe if you like more raisins and cinnamon. Oh and next time I’ll add my typical walnuts, I am out of those currently. 

. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup Oatmeal

1/2 cup Natural Peanut Butter (smooth this time) 

1/2 cup Flaxseed

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup Organic Honey

2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup Organic Raisins

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon 

Directions:

Put all ingredients in a food processor (I use a Ninja) and mix together. You’ll probably have to stop the mixer to scrap the sides to get it completely mixed together.

Once all mixed together, put it in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes and then form them into little bites. 

I store them in a glass container and leave them in the fridge until I eat them. 
Enjoy!!

Live Healthy

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

Let’s talk Mayo

Hannah Lucio

I went through a period of time where I was grossed out my mayo (mayonnaise). I literally wanted to throw a sandwich at a lady who nicely bought me a sandwich with mayo on it. Just because I hated mayo so much. I know….what I jerk I was for thinking it. I do not think that way these days and would kindly accept it now. She didn’t know. Time changes people right? Yes. Well mayo has a bad reputation, the old styles of mayo that is. I was grossed out by my weight gain (in my early 20’s) that I went to the extreme on dieting. No gluten(That was the worst), no meat (terrible), no junk foods and drinking diet tea that is very unhealthy. So you could imagine what it would have been like to add mayo to anything. Yuck.

Fast forward to better eating habits. I started eating vegenaise which tastes good but it is hard to find. I had been eating that brand for many years. When we moved to Virginia I wanted to find it, so I looked everywhere over here. I couldn’t find it so I was on the hunt to find a better for you mayo. Well I found it and wanted to share. The brand I found is Just mayo. Truly delicious and better for you.  It even tastes better than the vegenaise brand I used to get. Yes I could go with the trend of using avocado as my mayo, but sometimes I just don’t want to use avocado for everything. After all, avocado is HELLA EXPENSIVE now. I would have to spend $20 a week to add avocado to everything. Moderation is key when it comes to avocados. Especially the price. We are on a beans and rice, rice and beans budget now. Ok, so anyway. This just mayo brand is truly the best price, taste amazing and healthier. My main thing that I look for with eating healthier is Non-GMO and no high fructose syrup. This is a Non-GMO mayo. So if you are looking for a better mayo to use, look no further. Just mayo Is perfect!


I also found an affordable, delicious and healthier bread made by a big brand. It is called Whole Grains with Omega 3 ALA made with Flax, Sunflower and sesame seed. It has no High Fructose Corn Syrup or Artificial colors or flavors.  I haven’t looked at the local store for it yet but have been able to buy it at Costco. It tastes amazing with Just Mayo and healthy shredded chicken. Chicken sandwiched are super yummy, higher protein and you get your great grains included! My husband and toddlers love it also. Its a win for all. Hope you get to try out these two brands and let me know how you like it or if you have tried these two brand yet.

 

Have a Wonderful day!

Live Happy

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debt, Family, Food, money, post partum, pregnancy, prenatal, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Healthy No-bake Energy Bites and Simple To Make

Hannah Lucio

These are a favorite go-to snack for me and my kids. My 3 year old and 1 year old loves them. They do have ingredients in them that you should not give to your child until they are over 1 year old. Just throwing that out there. I have been making a similar recipe for many years now but this one I made a bit healthier so I can kick start my healthy eating. I eat an 80/20 “diet” but I I’m trying to kick it up a notch. I also make these for the women’s event at church and they absolutely LOVE them! I didn’t tell anyone I made them just to see if they liked them, people kept going back to get more. They are also such an easy grab and go snack. I put three into a snack size Ziploc and take it to go. Super easy and healthy.

I hope you make these and enjoy them as much as we do!

 

Ingredients (picture below):

1 Cup Oatmeal

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter (I use natural, super chunky peanut butter to add more crunch to it, YUM!)

1/2 Cup Flaxseed

1/2 Cup Walnuts (I chop them up in the food processor)

1/3 Cup Honey

1 tsp Vanilla

 

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and mix. I typically have to scrape the sides 1-2 times in the mixing process. You could just put everything in a mixing bowl and mix until all together if you do not have a food processor.

Put them into the fridge (I just leave them in the food processor) for 30-60 minutes.

Take them out and roll them into small bite size balls.

Put them into a container and put them back into the fridge.

Take out what you need and keep them rest refrigerated.

They are super simple and easy to make.


Enjoy!!
 

 

 

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Family, Food, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized

Simple and Delicious Inside out Chicken Enchilada

Hannah Lucio

I absolutely love chicken enchiladas. I have been making them for at least half of my life and was probably one of the first things I started cooking. Since I love enchiladas I wanted to make it a bit different. This is a great twist to the usual rolled up chicken enchiladas. And its super simple. You can either use a slower cooker, which I do not have, or you can put it in the oven like I did. I have to say, I am afraid of raw and/or under-cooked chicken so that is why i cooked it longer. I added pictures below of everything.  I hope you get to make this recipe, its truly delicious.

 

Ingredients:

3 lbs (4 chicken fresh chicken breasts)

2 19oz cans of green Chile enchilada sauce

12 Corn tortillas

2 cups Shredded cheese ( I used Sharp cheddar cheese)

More shredded cheese to add after cooking, if you like

Corn ( I cut the corn off of 4 of our left over corn on the cob)

1 can Black Beans

1 can olives

Sour Cream

 

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

I used a dutch oven (Pioneer Woman Brand) and put 2 cans of green Chile sauce in with the chicken breasts. Pop it in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours. You can always check after the hour to see if the chicken is done. I cooked it longer to make sure it was not under cooked.

While the chicken is in the oven I prepped the food. Cut the corn off the cob or drain the corn in the can, drain the black beans, cut up olives and cut corn tortillas into whatever shape you like. I stacked them on top of each other and cut them. That’ll save you a bit of time.

Take the cooked chicken out of the oven. Take one chicken breast out at a time and shred the chicken with two forks. Put the shredded chicken back into the green Chile sauce and add all of the other ingredients. Stir ingredients until just mixed. Put it back into the oven and cook for 30 more minutes.

Take out and put in a bowl. Add more cheese if you like and top with sour cream.


 

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breastfeeding, Family, Food, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Yummy and Healthier Pancakes

Hannah Lucio

Our family absolutely loved this recipe. It’s easy, fast and we had all the ingredients already. Nothing out of the ordinary is needed for these pancakes. I even was able to try out the new avocado oil from Costco. I love the healthier oil options we have these days. (Picture below) I hope you get to make these and enjoy them as much as we all did. And not to mention….toddler approved 🙂


Ingredients: 

1 cup Unbleached all-purpose flour or whole wheat  flour (I used 1/2 cup unbleached flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and only King Arthur brand flour)

1 Tbsp Raw sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup Silk Almond Milk

2 Tbsp Avocado oil or Melted butter (I used butter the first time around)

1 Egg

1/4 tsp All Spice

Splash of Real Vanilla
Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, all spice and salt in a small bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together Silk, oil/butter, vanilla and egg.

3. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just to moisten—a few lumps are fine.

4. Cook pancakes on a cast iron pan with avocado oil over medium heat. I put just enough oil to cook the pancake, maybe 1/4 tsp.

5. Cook until you see little bubbles and flip, continue cooking until done. Maybe 1 minute longer once flipped.
I served these delicious pancakes with uncured turkey bacon from Costco (I highly recommend this turkey bacon brand-picture below) and scrambled eggs with almond milk whisked into the eggs.


Have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend!!

Live healthy

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Family, Food, post partum, pregnancy, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Pizza recipe revised and absolutely perfect! 

Hannah Lucio

When I first set out to make pizza at home from scratch I found one recipe and kept tweaking it. I now have the best and most delicious recipe that I want to share. I love simple, I love easy and I love good food! I also found a pizza sauce without sugar added and without other junk added. It was maybe a dollar more but gosh, for $2.50 and using only half the bottle is darn cheap. Picture is down below.  Also, I cut out the oil out in the recipe and the crust is spot on amazing! I hope you get to try this recipe out, we absolutely loved it. 

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 tsp yeast (I only use Fleischmann’s brand)

1/2 tsp raw sugar or regular sugar if that’s all you have 

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 Cups White whole wheat flour (I only use King Arthur brand)or just regular white flour if that’s all you have

Shredded cheese

Pepperoni or whatever topping you like

Pizza pan
Directions:

Warm you mixing bowl by adding hot water and let it sit for 1 minute. Pour out the water and then start your first ingredient.

Add 1 cup of warm water to mixing bowl, yeast and sugar. Mix the yeast mixture enough to make sure all the ingredients are wet. Let it sit for about 5 minutes until yeast rises. 

Add flour, salt and garlic powder and mix the ingredients with a dough hook until all are mixed together. 

Lightly flour a counter and put dough on it. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. Sometimes I let it sit more if I get sidetracked, which is very easy with kids. Ha! 

Now is the time to preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 

Once the dough is done sitting, roll the dough out into a circle or whatever shape you need for your pan. I make sure the dough is about an inch over on the sides so I can roll it up to make crust. 

Lightly spay your pan with cooking spray.

Put the pizza dough on pan and roll the sides up two times. Make a small crust border. Not sure how else to explain it, ha! 

Set aside and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I know, sounds like a lot of waiting…..but you want a really good tasting homemade pizza right? It also gives me time to clean up the kitchen and tend to my boys. That way I don’t have a mess to clean up after dinner is done. 

After the 10 minutes, add the pizza sauce.

Add the desired amount of cheese

Add your toppings. Our favorite is pepperoni. I use the Applegate pepperoni brand. It’s way healthier than other brand. And they do not have nitrates in it. Thank goodness for that. 

Put in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. Check the pizza to see if it is brown on the edges. If not keep in the oven for 5 more minutes. Our pizza came out perfect in 25 minutes. 

Cut and enjoy! Try not to eat the whole pizza at once. Hehe! 
If you have any questions just ask me! 

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Family, Food, Stay at Home Mom

Brown Rice veggie Sushi

Hannah Lucio

Out of trial and error I have truly found the best brown rice sushi rice recipe. Because I absolutely love to share when I find a good thing I couldn’t help but share this one. Sushi rice is not really “healthy” so I wanted to find a recipe I could make at home with brown rice. The first recipe I used was rated 4 stars so I tried it out. Oh my goodness, gross! It was dry, insanely salty and just all around disgusting. I then tried a different recipe and boy is it yummy!! I made vegetarian sushi for my husband and I last night. I surprised him and he loved it! It is super easy and I hope you get the same yummy result that we had.

Brown Rice Ingredients:

1 2/3 Cup Water

1 Cup Brown Rice (I used Della Organic Light Brown Rice from Costco) *picture below

3 Tbsp Rice Vinegar (I used Nakano Organic Rice Vinegar) *picture below

2 Tbsp Sugar (You could get away with 1 Tbsp)

Instructions:

1.In a medium saucepan (I only have a dutch oven size from Pioneer Woman and it worked great) bring water to a boil then add rice. Stir and lower heat to low and cover. Cook for 25 minutes or until tender.

2.In a small saucepan; add vinegar, sugar and salt. Cook on medium heat until sugar dissolved, about 2 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally. Put pan aside to cool off a bit.

3.  Once the rice is done cooking slowly and carefully stir in the vinegar mixture making sure to coat all of the rice.

4. Set the rice aside to cool down before making the sushi.

 

Ingredients I used for making veggie sushi:

1 Medium size Cucumber

1 avocado

Brown Rice Sushi from above recipe

4 Seaweed papers (the pack I bought had 10 papers)

Sushi mat but not required. It is easy to use plastic wrap to put under the seaweed.

You cannot forget Soy Sauce, we only use   Kikkoman soy sauce

 

Instructions:

  1. Peel the cucumber skin and cut the cucumber in half. Cut the middle part of the cucumber out, it will look like a boat. Then cut the cucumber, lengthwise, into thin strips. Set Aside *picture below
  2. Cut the avocado in half. Take the seed out and take the skin of the avocado. Put the avocado, cut side down, and slice the avocado into thin slices. Set Aside *picture below
  3. Put a piece of plastic wrap (Or sushi mat) down on a clean and dry counter. Put one Seaweed paper down. Wet hands a bit ( Wetting your hands will prevent rice to stick on your hands) and then hand put the rice onto the seaweed. Put a very thin layer of rice on seaweed. Leave about 1 inch of the seaweed on one of the longest side of seaweed free of rice. *picture below. About 1 inch on the opposite side put about 4-5 thin slices of cucumbers. Put about 4 thin slices of avocado on top. *picture below. Slowly roll up the sushi tightly starting on the side with the veggies. Once you are rolled up to the side of the wrap with no rice at the end, wet your finger and wipe the seaweed end and seal together. Set Aside.
  4. Repeat step 3, I was able to make 4 rolls.
  5. Once finished, take a sharp knife and cut the rolls to your desired size. I like my sushi 1 inch thick.
  6. Plate and Enjoy!

 

I hope I explained it in as much detail as needed. And I hope it is not confusing. If you need clarification on anything just ask! I can try to explain it better.

I hope you enjoy the sushi as much as we did! I love love love this veggie sushi and completely believe it taste like the sushi get from the restaurants. I now do not need to spend a ton of money going out to eat sushi 🙂

*You can use any veggies you want, those two are my absolute favorite! I could eat this daily!

 

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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!

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