Tag: food

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

Live Simple 

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

Live Healthy

Live Simple

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

Baby step 2….get really mad it works wonders! 

Hannah Lucio

Let’s talk about getting out of debt for a few. If you have read, listened or taken the class for financial freedom with Dave Ramsey’s program you should know what I’m talking about today. When my husband and I got married we had a lot of debt going into our marriage. We had the simplist wedding in Vegas with literally a few people. So that was a super smart move on our part to start with. So we didn’t start with wedding deb like the normal couple. I got pregnant 2 months into our marriage. Not a super shocker but it took us by surprise. Fast forward to 7 months pregnant. We wanted to buy a house so bad we went through 22 offers on homes in California just to get one. We moved in at 8 months pregnant and finally when I took leave I looked at our finances. I haven’t really been good with finances my whole life but it was time to grow up and look. We were trying to figure it all out before I stopped working for good. We had a huge decision to make but in the end it wasn’t a question, I had to quit working and stay at home to raise our boy. So I wrote down our finances with my husbands pay only. Well I almost had a heart attack but really I had a mega panic attack. We needed $1000 extra a month just to break even, without groceries. Uh, I freaked. When my husband drove home after a 3 hour commute I told him I had no idea what to do. He mentioned that he had heard about this guy Dave Ramsey and that I (we) should listen to his podcast. That night I downloaded it and started listening to it the next morning. From the first moment I started listening I was hooked. I started googling about getting debt free and came up with a plan. The first thing we started with was listing our debt from largest to smallest. Since I was going to get my paid leave for a few months I told him we HAVE to use every penny to pay off debt. Little by little and almost every week we paid off more and more little debts starting with the lowest debt. I cancelled, closed and shredded every credit card we had. Store credit cards are rip Offs by the way! You think you are saving by their rewards? Nope. Guess what? You have to spend to save…..think about it for a moment. So everything was gone! The next step….get rid of the horrendous new Honda Pilot I fleased, yes it’s a lease and the worst kind of car payment you can have. You are renting a vehicle and really burning a hole in your pocket. That’s why it is called a flease in Dave Ramsey’s terms. My husband looked shocked! He thought I was a little crazy to want to return this brand new vehicle I loved. It wasn’t important to me, what was important was changing our family tree. Taking stress off my husbands shoulders. He was the main and only money maker in the house now and I had to cut things out. Getting my hair done, not anymore. I go maybe once a year now instead of every 4-6 weeks. Going out to dinner, nope. Mindlessly spending, nope. That year we paid off thousands of dollars and so much that we actually had $1000 extra cushion in our budget! Love, love, love! 

Let’s fast forward a bit. We got an offer to move to Virginia that I didn’t want to pass up. People were thinking we were crazy to move from “beautiful, sunny San Diego” to Virginia…..but we didn’t. We wanted out of our mortgage anyway. The area was closing in on us with pot growers also and I really wanted a safer environment for all of us. We put our the little house on over an acre on the market and sold it within 1 week! We were shocked and just ready! We packed up, moved to Virginia. We put our debt free on hold so we were comfy to move and wanted to start back when we got here. Well……we went backwards. We “needed stuff” when we got here. New bed (needed a king not queen size) , couch (all we had was a small leather couch),  tv (ours broke within a month of moving), went out to eat and those sort of things. One thing we did well was biking everywhere which saved us mega! We only filled up once a month on gas and that was amazing. Instead of every week in California. So, 3 months after we moved I got pregnant again. So guess what? We kept the debt free on hold longer until he was born. It’s what you are supposed to do anyway in case something happens. Right when we were going to start back on our debt free journey we decided to move to a bidder house and better area. Prolonging our journey but honestly it was the best move ever for us. Oh and we also bought a Jeep. Ha! We don’t have share a vehicle anymore, which actually helps a lot. It’s older also, not brand new and it was not expensive, thank goodness. 

So here we are two years after we move to Virginia. One kid was born(paid in cash), moved(paid in cash) , lots vet bills( paid in cash), dr bills (paid in cash) and acquired more debt(not paid in cash 😦   ). 

Last week I got what Dave says, “I got mad at debt, like really pissed off”. Last week I told my hubby, “that’s it! Beans and rice, rice and beans. I’m done!”. He completely agreed and so here we are….. Mad at debt! Not prolonging it anymore and getting after debt once again. 

A question people ask or what I’ve heard people complain about is that they don’t want to eat beans and rice. I had some say they don’t want to eat crap. Um, did you know that brown rice, black beans, ground turkey, bell peppers, zucccini and broccoli is not crap. It’s yummy and health. We eat more than just that though, just smarter eating. And Um, he doesn’t mean you have to literally eat beans and rice. What he means is cut your grocery bill down. I eat super healthy and defenitetly healthier when we are getting out of debt. I lose weight and feel amazing. It truly is such an amazing lifestyle to eat healthy. And no, health food isn’t more expensive, it’s something you shouldn’t over think about. Stop drinking you fattening, super sugary Starbucks drinks. I bet you’ll cut your waistline down by just stopping that. And your wallet will thank you. 

Here is our action plan:

1. My goal is to cut our grocery bills in half and use cash. Using cash scares me because I typically pick up items I believe we need but really we don’t. I don’t want to look stupid at the register and go over our allotted cash amount. Well, sometime you need to do things that are scary to succeed in life. So that’s what I am going to do. Also, I love Costco. Like absolutely love costco, but I seriously spend like $200 a week easily there. Then go to a grocery store and buy more. That is not necessary. So, I’m going to try to do away with Costco for the time being. Also, until winter hits and it’s is to cold, I will ride my bike to the grocery store to save money also. You can’t buy a bunch riding s bike, HA! 

2. No more eating out. We don’t do this a lot anyway, but it’s gone completely for now. 

3. I unsubcribed to all the clothing stores I get emails on and any other emails from regular stores as well. It will keep my mind in check on things we “need” but really don’t need. 

4. I’m getting back to doing my surveys to get extra money. Recently I did surveys and bought my husbands PS4. He absolutely loves it! I typically buy our extra things with survey money. So I’m getting back to that. 

5. Listen to Dave Ramsey podcasts. This is one way to getting my brain retired back to saving, it really has helped us a lot. 

6. Encourage others to get debt free and feel less stressed. I see and hear a lot of stressed out people working for money just to buy things. It’s not a fun way to live. So if I can even help one person get on track to getting out of debt, I’ve done something life saving. 

7. Get back to working out and look into personal training option. I have a passion for working out and really think it may be time for me to put it into action. 

7. Practice making cakes and cupcakes, especially in the design area. I also have a passion for cakes, cupcakes and decorating. I really think it’s time to put my skills to work. Who knows, maybe it’ll help me reach out to others more and make a few bucks. As long as I can bring a smile to others that is a job well done. 
If you have any questions one getting out of debt, just ask. I’m here for anyone who may need some help learning about it all. Join me on this journey, you (we) can do it!! 
Live happy

Live debt free

Live simple

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!

Food, Uncategorized, Women

Craving pizza on a budget?

Hannah Lucio

Need a fast lunch?

Craving “pizza” but don’t want to pay a hefty price for pizza?

Do you have pasta sauce? Cheese? Left over hot dog and/or hamburger buns?

Here is the solution and it only takes about 10 minutes. 

“pizza” finished and packed to take to our daily family picnic at the hubby’s work.

We have been making this style of “pizza” for as long as I can remember as a kid. 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

1. Separate your hamburger and/or hot dog buns.

2. Spread pasta sauce onto hamburger and/or hot dog buns

3. Spread cheese onto hamburger and/or hot dog buns

4. Put into over and keep an eye on it. I typically let the cheese melt and then turn it to boil and make them  toasted. 

And, voila, Done! 

Super easy, cheap and you can get rid of the left over hamburger and hot dog buns. Woot! 
Enjoy and live simple 🙂

Food, Uncategorized

Beans and rice, rice and beans

Hannah Lucio

If you know anything about Dave Ramsey you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven’t heard of him then I highly recommend googling him and listen to his podcast. Me and my husband have been on his Financial Peace program for almost two years now. We have had a lot of ups and downs and have not been “perfect” on getting out of debt. But, we are constantly learning and striving to get there.

So you might be asking, so what the heck does beans and rice, rice and beans have anything to do with this. Well, it is a way of eating when you are strapping down and getting out of debt. Does it mean you literally have to eat beans and rice all the time….no but it is healthy 🙂 I personally have noticed that I feel better eating beans and rice. I guess it can technically be a vegetarian “diet” but we do add meat in small amounts to mix it up. Over the next few posts I will be providing easy recipes that have beans and rice in them. I have gotten pretty creative with our meals and they turn out pretty darn good. I also have been learning tricks on spreading our meals “thin” to make the most of our food and money. Our family loves it and it is less expensive than most meals out there. Oh and pennies compared to fast food! We do like to eat out occasionally but that is normally to Chick fil a and Texas roadhouse . We still live but just limited to spending a ton of money.

Tonight I will be cooking one of our “mega” beans and rice meals and will be posting that tonight or tomorrow so you can see what I am talking about. Stay tuned, this is very exciting for me  to share our beans, rice and other sort of recipes. And also, stay tuned for our first football food night this Thursday and family homemade pizza Friday’s. This is ONE very exciting week!