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

Delicious and Healthy Breakfast for the Family

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

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

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

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

Funbites Food Cutter for Toddlers

We were at Buy Buy Baby a few months back and saw this gadget for food. We thought that it would be fun to cut shapes in our toddlers food to make him want to eat it. We bought it on impulse and tried it out. Apparently you should read the directions because it did not work for us. It really made the sandwich look non edible. A month after purchasing I saw a Shark Tank episode with this gadget on it. She showed them how to use it. I then realized that I did it wrong and tried to use it again. The proper way. Well, it was still frustrating. I made him a sandwich and used this gadget and it smashed the sandwich together and almost pancaked it. This is what it looked like on the top part of the plate:img_77371 Minus the sushi rolls I attempted to make him. Haha! To save yourself $10 and frustration, I would just use good ol fashioned knives to cut shapes. I made him “shapes” this morning and they looked like this:img_77591

And, he actually ate more of these versus the cutter. They are not Pinterest perfect but he loved them. So there you go, save yourself some money and time it takes to go buy the cutter and do it yourself.

I will be doing more “fun” things for him with foods so he can love the foods we try to introduce to him.

Live wisely

Save Money

And

Live Simple

Family, Food, pregnancy, Uncategorized, Women

Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins

I have looked at a lot of recipe’s for toddlers and finally decided to try this one. I am trying to expand our toddlers food choices and I found a winner!

 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/4 Oats

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Cinnamon (next time I will do 1 tsp)

1 Cup Applesauce (3 applesauce pouches from Costco)

1/2 Cup Buttermilk (or Greek Yogurt)

1/2 Cup firmly Packed Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp Canola Oil

1 Large egg, lightly beaten

1 1/4 cup Blueberries (I used frozen but you can use fresh as well). Make sure to wash the frozen blueberries so your batter will not be all blue.

 

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees

-Line muffin pan with liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray

-In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

-In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, brown sugar, canola oil and beaten egg

-Mix wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients until just mixed. Do not over mix batter. Fold in the Blueberries.

-Put batter in muffin cups. I actually had extra after filling the 12 cups so I made 5 mini muffins in addition.

-Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin from the middle of the tray comes out clean.

-Once cooled I froze half of the muffins and will enjoy the rest

Our son ate 3 mini muffins in a row. That is how much he liked them!  He loves to “help” cook and bake with me and this was a fun recipe. It is also a healthier muffin to make.

blueberry muffin blog 2

 

Live healthy, live simple