Motivation Monday (Meal plan)

  When your a parent a family has to eat.  Gone are the days of a bowl of cereal or pizza every night.  I do plan meals because it makes the busy nights easier.  My recipes are a combination of recipes new and old as well as simple meals.

Last night we picked up a Rotisserie Chicken marked down for $3.  Mashed potatoes were whipped up as well as a side of corn!

2/12 Monday
Spaghetti and meatballs. I gave some leftover frozen meatballs that I will be using and combine tomato sauce, paste and diced tomatoes for the spaghetti sauce with a side of garlic bread.

2/13 Tuesday
Bajio Chicken from the crockpot.  This recipe is my favorite from
sixsistersstuff.

2/14 Wednesday
Sausage and more pasta. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/245920/smoked-sausage-and-tortellini-skillet/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=search%20results&clickId=cardslot%2018


2/15 Thursday
Salmon is always appreciated here!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/21176/baked-dijon-salmon/with side of quinoa and some veggie.

2/16 Friday
The kitchen is closed. Every man women and child for themselves. Leftovers are served.

  What are you having for the rest of the week?  Do you meal plan?

Bucketlist Idea for Kids

  One unconventional idea I had for my daughter (only because she was a little older) was to get her in the kitchen and more familiar with the surroundings.  I wanted her to help prepare 3 meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Along with desserts: cookies, cake and pudding.

  We won't make more than one item a day and even after the items are made I ask her what she used to make it.  My hope is after a few times, we will make a binder of recipes for her reference and eventually she'll be able to make items independently with supervision.

  First meal was dinner!  Spaghetti to be exact.  A full meal with many deviations but easy to make.

Getting the noodles out was the easy part! Breaking them in half was more of a challenge.  Is it really necessary? Probably not but I break them out of habit.

Ground turkey was our meat of choice.  Open the container easiest with a utensil then the disaster I could foresee coming with just a 2 hour finger poke fight with that plastic.

  I opened the jar for her.  She is still practicing how to open her milk from McDonald's.  Young chef we add a little water to the jar to get all the sauce!

  She did great.  She knew all ingredients and I actually cooked the meat for her. Otherwise I would probably put her in a full body chemical suit to cook up sizzling meat in a frying pan.

  Sadly I didn't snap a picture of the finished product but rest assured it looked like all other spaghetti dishes.  Sadder news was that for the record I have proven over and over again even when you let your children cook with you doesn't mean they are going to eat it.

  She ate her garlic bread and slurped up some noodles but the majority of her meal was not consumed.  I can't wait for the day to come where she eats.  Maybe that's another reason I'm getting her in the kitchen more often.

Day 5 of 30 healthy challenge

  Started my morning with a carrot and peach smoothie compliments of my young chef assistant.  (See separate post for recipe and pictures)  I have been doing good with drinking 25 oz of water everyday with my breakfast.

  I always eat before my trip to the gym.  My workout today consisted of 30 minutes of the arc trainer and 15 minutes on the treadmill.  No weights today and no squats.  My pants didn't fit well enough me to move in that way.  Lol, they fit a little snug.  They fit enough for the cardio machine but definitely no bending, twisting or turning.  I must also tell you pulling them up after a trip to the restroom all sweaty was a chore too.  My problem is the thigh region (and maybe backside) but I think muscles are effecting the area more than that I am overweight.

Lunch today resulted in a meeting of the minds with my fitness group.  To make it this far is killing me.  I eat fast food, I eat sugar and I just wanted to go out.  Now granted I ate Mexican on Monday and Tuesday was chick fil A so I had been out but, not enough.  I wanted something and to smell fast food would have even been a reward.  I had posted my request of fast food and taco salad.  The ladies provided me with two places and good options.  Chipotles salad was the winner!

One word for this salad. H-U-G-E!!! I wound up eating half of it and may work on more tomorrow.  I did skip the sour cream and cheese.  The onions in the pico were a little much for me and for a non-guacamole lover I sure got a big dollop of it. Washed my lunch down with another 25 oz of water.

Lastly dinner was a simple spaghetti also prepared with the help of my assistant young chef.  The spaghetti was a wheat pasta, homemade scratch sauce,( I have previously  wrote about this easy 3 can + spices recipe) and sausage along with a side of carrots.  Again washing it down with 25 oz of water.

Pleased with my day regardless of the take out because I still did my best to get something healthy.