Cioppino-Fastest Dinner In The West!! Low Calorie TOO!!

If you are looking for a fast, and when I say fast I mean like 10 minutes from start to finish, healthy soup recipe this one is for you! This is actually my mamas recipe so when I make it up it smells like home and reminds me of her..AWH!!! I just love it! Its called Cioppino! What is Cioppino you ask?? It is a mediterranean style fish soup. You can really put whatever fish you would like in it but this is what I did. Only approx 160 cals per serving too! 

Enjoy!! 

Cioppino

1 can of spaghetti sauce

1 29 oz can of diced tomatoes

1/2 lb of salad shrimp

2 tilipia fillets

1/2 lb immitation crab

Mix together bring to a boil and serve. (you dont even need to cut the fish...as it cooks and you stir it will flake off nicely. DELISH!! 

Still in the Game! Come see a great resource for healthy eating!

I am excited to say that I am still working on my new years resolution! Woot!! Hey, for me this is a big deal. Most of my resolutions have been pie crust resolutions, easily made and easily broken, and by this time in the month of Jan I would have already fallen off the wagon as it were.  

How am I doing it? 

Well...I have an exercise buddy 

(Hi Kari!! :)) 

She actually introduced me to some free exercise classes being held 5 days a week in a church gym and we are going 2 times a week and then I am doing exercise at home the rest of the week. 

AND 

I have found a wonderful, inspiring website for help in the food dept!! 

Have you heard of 

SKINNY MOM?? 

She offers a supper club with full months of healthy dinner ideas including shopping lists and everything! 

AND

ITS FREE!!

All you will need to do is join her free membership to get access to the supper club.  Its pretty cool! Did I mention all the recipes have all the nutritional stats and even have WW pts if you are doing that?? 

Check her out HERE!!

PS did i mention the meals are actually tasty? So far my kids haven't even realized they are healthy!

PSS I am not being compensated by skinny mom at all. She doesn't even know I exist (unless by maybe my name on her membership list)I just think shes awesome and wanted to share.

LOVES!! 

Quick Easy 25 min Homemade Chili

This is a go to recipe for our family! We love chili but just flat out don't have the time to do all that soaking the beans etc that a traditional chili would take. This recipe is adapted from a cooking genius friend of mine who taught me a lot of domestic things in my earlier years whom will forever be thankful for!! 

Quick and Easy 25 min Chili

3lbs ground meat 

(we used chicken we had ground ourselves but hamburger or turkey works great too!!)

1 onion diced

2 cloves diced garlic or to taste

4 cans of chili beans undrained

1 15oz can of tomato sauce

2 TBS cumin or to taste

1/2 TBS chili powder or to taste

2 tsp liquid smoke

1/2 tsp chipotole powder

6 drops Tabasco or to taste

salt and pepper to taste

grated cheese for garnish

Brown meat with onion and garlic until meat is no longer pink and onion is translucent. Drain if it is needed. Add chili beans and tomato sauce. Add all seasonings to taste. :) Serve with a little cheese on top. PS this makes a huge pot,  Feel free to adjust the amounts to fit your needs.

Asian Inspired Salad

I am one of those people that loves salad once I am eating it but I rarely go out and choose it. You know what I mean? We had dinner with some friends the other night and she made this awesome asian-esque salad to balance the ribs she made. The tang really cut the fat of the ribs in the perfect way. It was delicious!! So the next day I made my own version. 

Mmmmm, right? So pretty!

Asian Inspired Salad

Salad:

1/2 head Napa cabbage

1/4-1/2 head of red cabbage 

1 yellow pepper 

1 red bell pepper 

2 cups sugar snap peas

1 bunch cilantro

Dressing:

1 tbsp sugar

1 knuckle ginger

3 cloves garlic

1-3 tbsp soy sauce

1/2-1 cup sesame oil

1/2-1 cup rice wine vinegar

Chop all the salad ingredients into bite sized pieces and mix in a large bowl. For dressing put garlic and ginger in food processor and chop until fine. Add all other dressing ingredients and blend until combined. Pour dressing over salad greens and serve immediately. 

*this salad lasts in the fridge without the dressing on it for a couple days. Just throw a moistened paper towel over the top and store. 

*chopped up rotisserie chicken is awesome in this salad

*ingredients in dressing are to taste. I use more like a thumb sized piece of ginger because we love it so much.

Homemade DIY breakfast chicken sausage. No nitrates or fillers and quick and easy!

My hubby isn't able to eat beef and will only eat pork once or twice a month and my son gets sick when he eats nitrates. Needless to say sausage could have very well have been a thing of the past. Which kinda sucked because I LOVE sausage!! Luckily I found a wonderful quick easy recipe to make my own chicken sausage (we even grind our own chicken) and it is rather tasty! You won't regret whipping up some of your own! Plus there are no fillers and we know exactly what is in our sausage, AND its much lower in fat AND No mystery meat here!!

HOMEMADE CHICKEN SAUSAGE

2lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs(ground in a food processor)

2 tsp sage

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 TBS brown sugar

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Mix together and cook as desired as patties or crumbles etc

Pretty easy eh? :)

Loves

Emily

Quinoa Round-up

I love quinoa. Don't you? It tastes great and is very good for you. It is a complete protein, has twice as much fiber as other grains. It has iron, lysine and magnesium. It is rich in B12 which gives you energy! It really earns its place on the list of superfoods!

If yoiu are new to quinoa then it can be intimidating. It looks weird and tastes different than you expect. But it is sooo good!  First here are the instructions I use to cook my quinoa and it comes out great every time! We usually use the red quinoa but that is just really because I like the look of it. I swear there is a subtle taste difference but that might be in my head.

This is my favorite recipe to use quinoa, Greek Quinoa salad.

We love fried rice around here. This is a recipe we will be trying soon!

Here is another from Damn Delicious! Quinoa Enchilada Casserole.

How about blueberry quinoa pancakes? They may be weird but I still want to give it a go!

Breakfast quinoa bites. Sounds right up my alley and I bet they would freeze pretty well for quick and healthy breakfast on the go.

You can also use quinoa like oatmeal and do hot breakfast cereal. I doubt you need much of a recipe for that but I found this one and it looks yummy!

This idea of doing lettuce/cabbage wraps with quinoa is a good one! I am going to put this on my menu this week!

Quinoa Caprese salad. Sound so yummy.

Strawberry, Spinach and Cashew salad. That sounds so good for summertime.

Chocolate Quinoa Cake! Who knew? Right?!

Do you have any tried and true quinoa recipes? A word of caution about quinoa: I have heard of people getting sick from eating it because of the high amount of fiber in it. I have never had a bad experience with it. It makes me feel better! Try eating small amounts at first if you are nervous about that.

Healthy Hummus...No Oil Here baby! With cucumber slices for dipping!

I am sure you know that garbanzo beans are healthy...RIGHT? But do you know why? Did you know garbanzo beans are a great source of protein, fiber and healthy fats, they increase energy, help stabilize blood sugar, lowers LDL cholesterol and risk of heart attack and because of their high fiber and low GI they are excellent for weight loss!! Plus the reduce the risk of colon cancer! Yippey!! Here is on of our families favorite ways to eat garbanzo beans..

NO OIL HUMMUS W CUCUMBER DIPPING SLICES

1 can of garbanzo beans drained
1 TBS minced garlic
2 TBS lemon juice
chicken broth as needed
sliced cucumber (as many as you like) :) 

Blend garbanzo beans, garlic and lemon juice in a blender adding chicken broth slowly as needed until the hummus reaches your desired consistency. Dip sliced cucumbers as if they were a chip or cracker. 

ENJOY!!

Our Garden

 Any gardeners out there? Put your hands in the air like you just don't care!! Having a garden is one of the all time most satisfying things I have ever done. Like in my life. No joke! Planting little seedlings and then watching them grow into something that can sustain your life is pretty rad. It amazes me how a little seeds can become veggies. It blows my mind! I wanted to share it and my total obsession! 

This is our humble garden. It is in great need of some weeding but life gets in the way of that sometimes. Whomp whomp. I love walking out, talking to the plants and checking on them. Am I getting a little weird? We built the garden boxes a few years ago. I think that an upgrade is going to be necessary next year but for now they are just perfect. 

These tomatoes are Cherokee Purples. They were grown from seeds by kids at my sons school. I really love that! What a cool thing to learn.  

These are yellow bell tomatoes. They are crazy good. I have been eating them straight off the plant. These also came from Nicco's school.

Oh tiny little jalapenos! I am in love! They are only like an inch long right now. Some are even smaller. It is so neat to watch them start to appear out of their tiny flowers. 

Sweet Bell Peppers. I was expecting these peppers to be bigger but they are growing to be the size of my palm. Little and yummy. I was hoping to cook these up in some recipes but so far we are cutting them up and eating them. We can't seem to wait long enough to cook them! 

Zucchini! This is a Black Beauty zucchini plant. I am so pumped that these bad boys are growing. A lot of people aren't zucchini fans but we really enjoy them around here. I actually wish that we had planted two plants! 

                            
This is a spaghetti squash. Which is actually my favorite plant that we grow. I can't get enough of it! When these little squashes start showing up I am going to do a little dance!

                           
                            
This one is a cucumber. This is our first year doing cucumbers. We have done lemon cucumbers before with great success. So we decided to go for it.

And last but not least, our T-Rex. He watches over our garden and keeps it pest free. A little concrete bird watches over our garden as well

I have a couple tips to share:

• Sprinkle eggshells in your garden. Our grandpa always did this so I always have as well. Turns out it keeps slugs and snails at bay.
• Use a sprinkly sprinkler to water your garden. I always put it on really low and then move it as needed through the garden. The water soaks in better than if you just put the hose on. I actually really want to get an irrigation or sprinkling system set up but for now the sprinkler works. 
• Water at night.
• You can use a mixture of water, dish soap and cayenne pepper to spray as a natural pesticide. Bugs hate it! Just don't forget to wash your veggies really well.

Do you have any gardening tips? I am still a novice and would love to hear!!

I am hopping on the bandwagon

This blurry picture was taken by my son. I am sad to say that it is one of the ONLY pictures taken of me in the last few months. Literally. I like to be behind the camera not in front of it.  

Emily's post yesterday about DietBet made me think. It reminded me of the one pull up goal I made and then promptly threw aside. Well in all fairness I did do the upper arm workout once. ONCE! Ugh. I am here to recommit to my cause! No more waiting around for it to be cooler, hotter, morning, night, after dinner, before breakfast etc... I have an excuse for any time of day. The only time I have is now. I intend to use it more wisely.

As a family we have decided that it is time to stop eating sugar and fast food. Solidarity! We decided to do that mostly because my husband and son have sensitive stomachs that can't handle it. Really though we all need to lay off the sugar and fast food. Their poor stomachs are a great reason for us to make better health choices. None of us really feel well and that is largely due to what we put in our bodies. I am excited for the challenge of not having sugar. I am also scared shitless! The inevitable weight loss will be an excellent side effect but really I just don't want to feel like crap anymore. I feel like I need to say that we will not be giving up sugar entirely. Our plan is to cut it way back so when we have a special dessert it is a treat instead of an everyday occurrence.

Plus also as well! The time has come to recommit to my one pull up challenge. At the very least I need to be doing some kind of workout. So yoga with an emphasis on planks, lots of push ups, dumb bell rows, bananas and reverse bananas and inverted rows. I want to feel strong. Of course some cardio thrown in there too. Probably walking and jumping rope.

It feels empowering to take back your life. I have a long row to hoe. There are going to be times that I want to quit but I am hoping I can keep the enthusiasm up! Or at least fake it until I make it.

What do you do for workouts? Do you have any good recipes? Help a sister out!

-AnneMarie

 

Is this it?? YES!! I can do hard things and I am going to prove it! Weight loss journey happening here!!

So...I need to lose weight. Boo. Actually I am officially down 23 lbs but by basic accident. I have been trying LOTS of different programs, I mean LOTS and I think I have finally (I sure hope so this time)found what is working for me. I am drinking lots of water, avoiding carbs, attempting to keep them under 50-100 max a day, increasing fruits and veggies, limiting sugar (back to the carbs thing) and exercise.4 days a week. I have promised myself that I will stop eating when I am full, at the first inkling even. You'd think that would be an obvious thing but it hasn't always been that way for me. I also promised myself if there is anything I really want to have I will just have it. No denial. Starting with 3 bites. I am finding that usually after 3 bites of that naughty food thing, it sometimes wasn't all my mind had it cracked up to be so I can leave it and if it is I eat it. Hopefully avoiding the spiral into binge land when I can't stand it anymore and eat far beyond what I should to satisfy the craving.

ALSO...

I found a rad new game weight loss website!! You can click here to go check it out. Its called diet bet and the concept is that everyone playing puts in $30 and all who lose 4% in 28 days gets to split the pot!! HOW FUN?! They also have 6 month games if you are interested. Go check it out!! You can even start your own game if you want with your friends and family!! 

PS I am not being compensated by diet bet..I just think its cool and want to share.  They have a game that just started today so go and have some fun!! Lets do this together!! 

LOVES!!

Em

Watermelon is bomb!

It is officially summer! YAY! I have to admit that hot summer days are not my favorite. Cool summer nights are more my bag. I love sitting in the backyard and having the day slowly fade away to night. I love the cool down really. Lets not kid ourselves. I do love eating a really cold piece of watermelon on a hot summer day though! Watermelon is so good for you! It helps hydrate you big time. It also has vitamins a and c in it. Plus it is chock full of lycopene. Not too mention the potassium or the amino acids arginine and citrulline. Awesome stuff! Lets celebrate the watermelon!!

How amazing is this watermelon cake from Sprinkle Bakes? Well pretty much all she does over there on Sprinkle Bakes is amazing!

Obviously these Kate Spade watermelon ballet flats are awesome!

But these cute ones are more my speed. And price range HA!

These say they are kids studs but I would totally wear them!

With this crazy t-shirt!

This is killing me with the cuteness!

Cute watermelon drinking glasses.

This smoothie sounds so refreshing! And its from Oprah so you know its good ;)

How about a tasty bit of grilled watermelon?

This list is just a tiny dip of the toe of the watermelon goodness out there! Watermelon rocks. No wonder it is a favorite summer fruit. Now I am off to enjoy some much needed rehydrating watermelon.

Baconated Green Beans

I have a pretty good handle on main dishes come dinner time. I can whip up a bunch of frozen chicken breasts with gusto. Give me some pork chops and I can wow you. That being said my side dish repertoire is a little lacking. I am working on it though!  Hence this recipe. Now I like to think that this is healthy but really it isn't. I use a lot of bacon in it. The amounts are just suggestions. You can reduce the amount of bacon. It is crazy good like this though!

Baconated Green Beans

24 oz fresh green beans prepared for cooking

12 oz bacon

1 med onion, diced 

Boil six quarts of water in medium pot. Throw in green beans and bring back to boil for 4-5 minutes. Take green beans out and immediately cool down in an ice bath. Cook and crumble bacon. Remove bacon from skillet and all but 1 tbsp bacon grease. Saute onion until translucent. Mix green beans, bacon and onion in serving dish. Enjoy! 

You want to cool the beans down immediately after they are cooked. That helps them keep that bright green color. I cheated a little too! I bought onion that was already chopped. It is a little more expensive but the time and effort it saves is worth it in my eyes. It makes getting dinner on the table that much easier.