Meal Plan Monday

Monday comes around all too quickly, doesn't it?  And whew...it's a doozy around here.  Mondays are always the hardest for my babies.  Maybe it's all of the fun we had over the weekend or missing their daddy, but we're riding the struggle bus most Mondays. 

We had a nice weekend at home complete with chores being checked off, visiting with some friends and meeting their new baby boy, and church on Sunday followed by some awesome Sunday afternoon naps.  Well, the kids took the naps.  J and I adulted; he fixed the garage door while I grocery shopped.

I absolutely loved your feedback from last week's post and I hope it helped you plan or stay accountable.  You also gave me some great ideas for new recipes to incorporate!  Here is what we will be eating this week.

Monday - Mississippi Pot Roast (Crockpot friendly) with steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, and salad.
Tuesday - Mexican Pulled Chicken Stuffed Peppers with black beans. (Crockpot friendly)
Wednesday - Eating at my parents' house
Thursday - Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. (Crockpot friendly)  I've seen this recipe a lot floating around on Pinterest and several of my friends have made it.  We're giving it a shot!
Friday - Green Chile Turkey Burgers with oven roasted sweet potato wedges.
Saturday - Grilled Pork Steaks with grilled squash, zucchini, asparagus, and baked beans.
Sunday - Panko Pesto Chicken with sauteed green beans and roasted parsnips.

Food makes me excited and I'm really excited about this week's menu.  These are all "clean eating" approved with the exception of Monday's pot roast and the panko used on Sunday's chicken. Let me know what recipes you'd like to try and I'll do my best to get them posted.  Watch for the Springtime Chicken recipe coming sometime this week.

Here's to good food and sweet family time together around the table.

Meal Plan Monday

Alright, y'all.  I'm going to bring back Meal Plan Monday with the hopes that it will keep you and I accountable in staying organized and creating healthy home cooked meals for our families.  If organization and planning were love languages, they would be mine.

I love to meal plan and I have ever since I lived on my own.  Now it is even more critical for my growing family.  We are on a tight budget (thanks, Dave Ramsey), and eating out is expensive!  I make my meal plan every Sunday, with input from my family, and usually do my grocery shopping on Monday.

Here are some helpful tips when making your weekly meal plan:
1.  Look for sales on meat at your local stores that week.  Plan meals around that (if your family eats meat).
2.  Buy produce that's in season.  It will be much more cost effective and in-season always tastes better.  This is a great resource to check if you're unsure about what is and what is not in season.
3.  Be realistic.  If you know you have a meeting that lasts until 6:00 on Tuesday night, chances are you need to prepare something ahead or pick something up on the way home.  Don't wait until you get home to decide.
4.  Be flexible.  If you have tacos planned for one night and your family is just not feeling it, switch it with another night.
5.  Don't be afraid to add variety.  Of course we all have our favorites, but branch out!  Cooking can be a lot of fun and the more you do it, the more comfortable you become with it.  I say try just one new recipe a week.
6.  Involve your family.  Ask for their input.  And then sit down at the table and eat together.

Here is what we will be eating this week:

Monday - Mushroom chicken with brown rice and steamed asparagus.
Tuesday - Tacos with refried beans (I usually plan a different Mexican dish for Tuesday nights).
Wednesday - Church/leftovers.
Thursday - Springtime Chicken with sauteed zucchini, squash, and carrots over brown rice.
Friday - Lumpia with fried rice.
Saturday - Pizza night!
Sunday - Greek chicken with sauteed green beans and baked sweet potatoes.  You can find the recipe here.  Shared by my sweet friend, Erica, this is fast, easy and healthy.

I make my own taco seasoning.  It's SO simple and I always have these spices on hand.

Homemade Taco Seasoning:

1. 1 Tbsp. Chili Powder.
2. 1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder.
3. 1/4 tsp. Onion Powder.
4. 1/4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes.
5. 1/4 tsp. Dried Oregano.
6. 1/2 tsp. Paprika.
7. 1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin.
8. 1 tsp. Sea Salt.

I'd love to hear what you're planning for this week!  Please leave me questions/comments and I'll be sure to respond.  Have a wonderful, blessed week.

Meal Plan Monday!

So I definitely didn't do Meal Plan Monday last week...please forgive me.  It was our 1st day of school (with the kids) and it was all I could do just to put dinner on the table for us.  I was spent!  That first week always gets me.  I have to get used to using my teacher voice again, being on my feet all day, etc.  And let me tell ya...when your feet hurt, it makes everything hurt!  We had some tasty suppers last week, but nothing fancy.  Here's what's on our plates this week!

Monday: Chicken Pesto Bake with Steamed Asparagus and Salad.  Recipe here.  I've never made it before, but it was super easy and quick.  It's in the oven right now as I type and it smells divine.  I used my homemade pesto recipe.  If it's good, I'll post the recipe for y'all!
Tuesday: Leftovers for me.  We have meetings and such after work so I'm fending for myself!
Wednesday: Church
Thursday: Pan Grilled Pork Chops and Sauteed Squash.  Trusty ole favorite.  Works everytime.
Friday: Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken over Pasta and Salad.  I'm trying to do crockpot recipes on Fridays because the last thing I want to do is work when I get off on Friday! ;)
Saturday: Barbeque Ribs, Mashed Potatoes, and Roasted Okra.  I use this as my ribs recipe guide and I make my own BBQ sauce, similar to what they suggest.
Sunday: Chuck Roast with Roasted Broccoli.  Chuck Roast may be one of our favorite meals.  It is SO good and savory.  But this one's a family secret. ;)  Just kidding...maybe.  My brother gave me this recipe so I'd ask before sharing it.

Hope you have an awesome week and eat good food - life's too short not to!  Be blessed!

Meal Plan Monday

Happy Monday, y'all!  I survived being back at work ;)  Nah, actually I'm excited to be back.  It was so great to see everyone today, work in my room, and start planning for this upcoming year.  I'm really excited to meet my students!  It's going to be another wonderful year.

Let's get down to what's going to be on our plates this week.  I plan all of my meals for the week over the weekend and shop for what I need.  I'm very linear and crave order, so this helps eliminate stress over what to have for dinner.  I like to know ahead of time and have a plan.  Here's what's on this week's menu.

Monday: Green Chili Turkey Burgers and Roasted Sweet Potato Fries with Rosemary
Tuesday: Pioneer Woman's Chicken Stir Fry
Wednesday: Church Dinner
Thursday: Blackened Tilapia with Roasted Broccoli (this is my new favorite)
Friday: Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Sautéed Zucchini
Saturday: Blackened Mahi with Roasted Broccoli

My goal this week is to try to eat meats that I had previously frozen.  I need to make more room in my freezer!  And also I'm trying to stick to buying produce that's in season...keeping my grocery bills low while making healthy meals for me and the hubs! 

I pray y'all have a great week.  I'm off to write names on doortags and nametags for my new kiddos!

Meal Plan Monday & My Ordinary Life

***OOPS - Posted a day late!***

I missed last Monday's meal plan post, but not this week!  I've got the day off and had some time to blog.  Here's our meal plan for the week:

Sunday: Mom's Chicken Spaghetti, recipe here.
Monday: Filet Mignon, baked sweet potatoes and salad...SOOO good!
Tuesday: Eat Clean Summer Salmon, steamed asparagus and salad
Wednesday: Church
Thursday: BLTs since I'll be working late
Friday: Blackened Tilapia, steamed broccoli and salad

We've been trying to eat really healthy and shred some of that holiday weight.  So far, so good.  I love how just eating good, unprocessed food can shrink you down.  It's so amazing to see the difference.  I just have to keep reminding myself that food is fuel and reach for healthy snacks instead of sweets.  Being back in the gym is really helping out too.  When you feel good in your skin, everything else just clicks too.  I refuel my soul daily through Bible studies and talking with God and I'm back on track to refueling my body daily with healthy foods and exercise.  It's amazing how much more energy I have too!  And boy oh boy do I ever need it right now...this time of year is always crazy at school.

On a totally different topic, I decided that at the start of this year I was going to be doing the 365 day photo challenge where you take a picture for every day of the year.  It seemed like a great idea because SO much happens in a years time and I thought it would be a fun way to document it...Until I started.  It's hard to take a picture everyday!  I have come to the conclusion that I live a fairly boring, ordinary life...ha!  Well of course I do, I already knew that.  And I LOVE my life I've been blessed with.  I'll take my ordinary, simple life over anything.  It makes me humble and happy.

Tonight I'm feeling especially blessed to be sitting at home with my awesome husband and furbaby.  It's nothing new, but it sure does feel good to be surrounded by those you love and who love you.   Let's take the time to be thankful in the little things we so often overlook everyday. 

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 

-1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

Meal Plan Monday

I'm bringing back Meal Plan Monday.  I haven't posted one in a looooong time, but I need the accountability and if it helps any of you by giving you ideas, then it's a win-win-win (Office reference, sorry).

Jared and I have finally made a budget and I'm so excited about it.  We have goals to work towards!  Some dear friends shared with us their copy of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and we are sticking to it.  For some reason, it's fun to me.  Weird?  Yes.  But it's like I'm in competition with myself to see if I can do better than my budget.  For example, when I went grocery shopping, I saved $34.  That may not seem like a lot to any of you couponers, but it's a great start for me.  And I didn't even use coupons!  I just bought meats and produce on sale.  If I keep it up, I'll have a lot of mulah left over in my grocery budget. 

Here's my 1st meal plan of the year.  It actually started on Saturday because that's when I grocery shop now.

Meal Plan

Saturday: Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti.  Recipe here.
Sunday: Crockpot Taco Soup
Monday: Blackened Grouper with steamed broccoli
Tuesday: Tacos!  We love taco Tuesdays :)  I'll post below how I make my own taco seasoning.
Wednesday: Church
Thursday: Grilled Pork Chops with steamed broccoli
Friday: The Deen Bros Lighter Macho Nachos.  Recipe here.

I seem to have a Mexican theme this week...I don't know why.  I guess we haven't had it in so long and it's all yummy and pretty good for you.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Source: 5dollardinners.com

1 T chili powder, 1 T ground cumin, 1 T garlic powder, 1 T onion powder, 1/4–½ T crushed red pepper.  I triple this recipe to make plenty to last for a couple of months.   Mix well in a jar and use instead of that preservative packed, expensive stuff at the store.  You probably already have all of these seasonings in your pantry.

I hope you've had a great start to your week!

Meal Plan Monday & Family Meals

Good morning!  I am blogging from my couch this Monday morning.  I'd say that's a pretty good start to my week.  My meal plan for this week has a bit more significance after last night's women's Bible study.  It was on bringing the family back to the table.  I was absolutely floored at the statistical evidence showed to support the impact of family dinners.  I mean, I absolutely love having sit down meals and always have, but I had no idea it was making this big of an impact.  More than anything else, it has been shown time and time again that children who have sit down dinners (no matter the parents' marital status, religion, or any other demographics) are less likely to smoke, do drugs, drink alcohol, participate in pre-marital sex, etc.  And even though I don't have any kids, it's still so important for me and my hubby to have that one-on-one time over a meal.  So much of Jesus' life revolved around food and meals so it makes sense for us to practice those same principles.

I've won half the battle of family meal time because I do plan ahead and have all of my groceries on hand.  That eliminates SO MUCH stress from my life.  I never have to worry about what I'll be making for breakfast, lunch or dinner because I already have it planned out.  That's a big reason I share this with others - I want to help all of you see just how easy it is to make a meal plan and stick to it.  Now as for the second half of this battle - actually sitting down at the table without ANY distractions - that's what we'll be working on in our household.  We used to sit together at the table and talk, but we got TV trays as a wedding gift and have lazily been using those almost every night to have dinner on the couch.  We've both been talking about how we feel like we haven't talked all night even though we've been sitting next to each other, and last night's message was exactly the push I needed to get us back on track.  We will be having dinner together...at the table...no cell phones or TV.  And I'm really excited.  With that said, here's this week's meal plan.

Monday: Flank steak and baked sweet potatoes
Tuesday: Sauteed shrimp and zucchini
Wednesday: BBQ pulled pork (from paleopot) with steamed broccoli
Thursday: Blackened snapper with steamed broccoli
Friday: Baked lemon chicken with steamed broccoli

Source: barefootcontessa.com

**Fresh broccoli was on sale, so I stocked up.  I absolutely love it so I don't mind eating it three nights in a row.

In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I'll end this post with a great quote from a very bold man...

"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

First Meal Plan of 2012

Time to get back to eating clean!  We're going paleo all the way - no more baked goods for awhile.  Here's our first meal plan of the new year.  Special thanks to Andy over at Changed My World for always sharing his awesome recipes.  He grew up with my husband and his blog has been so helpful in our lives.  We have loved everything we try and I'll be adding two new ones to the list this week (Wednesday and Thursday's meals).  Have a wonderful week, y'all!

Monday - Meatloaf, homemade mashed potatoes and steamed brocoli

Tuesday - Pot of Northern Beans (flavored with my leftover ham bone)

Wednesday - Thai Beef Cabbage Wraps

Source: changedmyworld.com

Thursday - Maple Mustard Chicken

Source: changedmyworld.com

Friday - Garam Masala Shrimp and Zucchini

Source: changedmyworld.com

Meal Plan Monday!

Oh my gosh – could it be?  I am finally able to post a meal plan!  It’s been about 2 months.

Now that we’re moved and settled (for the most part), I’m enjoying using my new kitchen.  I love love love it!  I’m still making adjustments to my recipes because my stove does NOT cook like my other ones did in the past.  It’s turbo charged or something.  I have to decrease my temperature and cook time to adjust, so bear with me if you’re sampling anything I make in the coming months.  And as promised, I am continuing to include recipes from Pinterest weekly.  I loooove that website!  Here’s our meal plan this week:

Monday: Baked Salmon, mashed potatoes and steamed veggies

Tuesday: Baked Potato Soup (via pinterest)

Wednesday: BBQ Crockpot Chicken with steamed veggies

Thursday: Peppercorn Pork Tenderloin with mashed potatoes and broccoli

Friday: White Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce (via pinterest)

Hope you have a blessed week!  I survived my first 9 weeks as a teacher.  PTL!  Now I know why teachers soooo deserve those summer vacations…whew.

Happy Monday

It's Monday - might as well make it happy, right?!  This weekend was so great.  It was relaxing and we got to spend some time with our favorite people.  Jared's best friend was in town with his family for a week long vacation so we spent Friday night and all day Saturday with them lounging at the beach and their condo's pool.  I made some Chocolate Buttercream Frosted Brownies and took them over to them Friday night.  By Saturday afternoon they were all gone...yes!  I love that!  Doesn't it make you feel so good when people love what you cook?  Service is definitely one of my love languages.  I love to do for others and it makes me feel so good when it's appreciated.

Saturday evening we all went down for the shark tournament weigh-in.  Can we say disturbing...I mean, it's so fascinating and cool to see them, but when I think about that 875 lb tiger shark I see being brought up to the stand swimming around in the water I swim in, it makes me never want to stick a toe in the ocean again.  But it was fun and our friends don't get to see or do that kind of stuff often.  If you want to see pictures, you can click here.  Afterwards, we all went to dinner at the Fish House, one of our favorites.  Grits A Ya Ya were phenomenal as always. 

Sunday morning we went to Sunday School and listened to a great lesson.  One of the things I love the most about our class is not only can I apply everything I learn to my marriage, I can apply it to every aspect of my life.  It is so helpful & we are so blessed to be a part of this class.  I can't believe we've been in there for over a year already - time flies!

Speaking of time flying, we spent Sunday evening at my parents' house celebrating my little brother's 21st Birthday.  WHERE did the time go?  I can remember when he was about 6 months old (I was 4), I was holding him looking at him and closing my eyes trying to imagine what he'd look like as a teenager.  Ha!  So funny that I have a vivid memory of that.  We've always been close.  He was a best friend of mine growing up and we got along exceptionally well compared to most siblings.  We had our moments when we got into late teens/early twenties but I am so proud of the young man, father, and husband he has become.  He has a great heart and I love him very much.  This picture is us to a T - ha!

Since I haven't done a meal plan for y'all in a couple of weeks, I'll post one today.  I'm going to start incorporating at least one meal I've "pinned" to my pinterest into my weekly meals.  I like bringing pinterest to life.  So, here we go!

Monday: Blackened Swai with Steamed Asparagus & Salad
Tuesday: Grilled Pork Steaks with Grilled Zucchini & Squash
Wednesday: Crispy Chicken with Creamy Italian Sauce and Bowtie Pasta (from pinterest)
Thursday: Eat Clean Tacos with Fresh Salsa & Chips
Friday: Honey Spiced Glazed Chicken with Steamed Broccoli and Mashed Potatoes (from pinterest)
Saturday: Possibly eating out or eating leftovers
Sunday: Mom & Dad's house or I'll go grocery shopping

Oh, remember how about a week ago I told y'all I was going to make these?

Source: anediblesymphony.blogspot.com

Well I did and they were delish and oh.so.easy.  Go make one and say goodbye to plain ole grilled cheese.

Hope you have a blessed day! XO

Blues Weekend, Skin Care & Meal Plan

Wow, what a weekend!  It's weekends like this past one where I am so incredibly thankful that we live here.  It's been my way of life my whole life and I often wonder what people all over the rest of the country are doing during our Blues weekend.

I don't know if the oil spill from last year contributed to this, but the crowd was larger than ever this year.  We're bouncing back!  We went for the first time by boat and had the best time.  It was like the redneck yacht club out there...everyone tied together, bbq'ing from the back of their boats, tents set up in the water.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  Here's a picture I found online today of Sabine Bay (where we were).  Is that not the coolest picture?  You can see all of the boats anchored around the sandbar.  It was a good time.

It was an all day event - left our house at 7:45 Saturday morning and did not get home until 8:15 that night.  We were wore out.  Here we are when we first anchored.  That big floppy hat saved my face from burning.

And we caught a gorgeous sunset on the way back home.

Good weekend enjoying God's gorgeous creations.

Speaking of that floppy hat saving my face from burning, I am happy to announce that I did not get burned at all.  I honestly couldn't believe it, but I kept reapplying sunscreen all day and it worked!  As I'm getting older, I'm starting to freak out about my skin.  I don't want to look wrinkly by the time I'm 30.  I wear spf 30 on my face everyday and 30 on my whole body if I'm out in the sun for an extended period of time.  Call me paranoid but I don't want to look older due to sun damage, plus skin cancer runs in my family.  I've made a pledge to never fake bake anymore, thanks to A Blonde Ambition.  You can too right here at Sun Savvy Bloggers.  In the meantime, I have found some of the best self tanner around and it smells soooo good.  I ordered mine from Sephora.

Source: sephora.com via Carrie on Pinterest

And I use Clarins self-tanner for my face.  I have the most sensitive skin in the world and this stuff works great.

Source: sephora.com via Carrie on Pinterest

I may not be as dark as I used to be, but I try to take good care of my skin.  It has to last me the rest of my life.  Plus, we all look good with some color so it doesn't hurt to try self tanners in place of tanning beds and sun.

Anyways, those are just my ramblings - take it with a grain of salt if you wish!  How about a meal plan:

Monday: Oven roasted chicken with steamed brocolli

Tuesday: Cooked spinach topped with blackened Swai

Wednesday: It's my birthday!  Jared's cooking me dinner :) Grilled steaks & sweet potatoes

Thursday: Grilled pork chops, mashed potatoes & steamed brocolli

Friday: Attending a bridal shower after work

Saturday: Out for my birthday dinner!

Sunday: Dinner at my parents' house :)

Stay tuned - I'll post my recipe for Eat Clean Pizza.  I've had a few requests and would love to share.  Hope everyone had a great start to their week.  Be blessed!

XOXO

I Had a Plan...

I found my jump drive from high school/college last week and couldn't help but plug it in to see what was on there.  Oh boy...high school pictures, early college pictures and almost all of my coursework from my college classes.  I was smart, ha!  I don't remember half of that stuff.  Case in point...

What does that even mean?  At one point I did know.  Anyways, I had this class my junior year of college called 'Futures'.  Every college of business student was required to take this class before they graduated.  It was designed to make you think about your future, plan ahead, or so I thought.  Maybe it was designed to make me laugh out loud as I read back on my assignments years after the fact.  Wow, how so much can change!

I had a plan.  I had it all figured out.  Career was # 1 on my list.  I was going to travel the world and be a successful business woman, eventually becoming a VP at some major company. Ha!  I was going to get married and wait to have kids until I was almost 30 or over.  Not that there's anything wrong with any of this, it is just so not how my life has turned out and none of it was what I really longed for.  I was just cracking up reading this...thinking to myself how naive I was.  I was so lost.  Any of you ever do that?  Now, some of my "Life Plan/Inventory" was and still is dead on...like "Things I Would Like To Stop Doing" section reads:
1. Always having to be right (lol)
2. Being too self critical
I still struggle with those all of the time.  But overall, I was so off.  I was lacking God as the foundation of my life.  I was going about it my own way and I'd like to reach back and slap my 18 year old self.  I could have saved a lot of time and money had I consulted with God first, but that's okay.  He knew I had to go through all of that in order to be where I am now.  After all, had I not gone down that path, I don't know how I ever would have met my husband and some of the best friends I have.  So, maybe having "my plan" wasn't so bad after all.  He knew I'd eventually get it right .  I'm just thankful I got on "His plan" so I'd be led straight to the love of my life.  Ahhh...saved by the Grace of God. :)

Speaking of the love of my life, I just have to mention how proud I am of him and everyone that worked on this past case.  They were in trial all last week and the jury determined Friday night that the man they were representing was not negligent.  Such a great victory for them, I could have cried when I heard the verdict read.  They worked so hard and deserve to feel good about all their hard work.  Rosie and I sure were getting lonely without J around though.  Happy to have him back :)

Anyways, y'all want a meal plan?  Here it goes:
Monday: Pork tenderloin & steamed broccoli (since we didn't eat that Friday - went out to celebrate the defense victory!)
Tuesday: Blackened snapper and steamed asparagus
Wednesday: Grilled mustard lime chicken with grilled zucchini.  Recipe here.
Thursday: Eat Clean homemade pizza
Friday: Eat Clean tacos
Saturday: Green Chile turkey burgers (possibly)
Sunday: dinner with Meemaw
Monday: 4th of July!  I'll be making this fruit pizza

Source: pauladeen.com via Carrie on Pinterest

Hope y'all had a good Monday! XOXO

Meal Plan!

This week I decided I would try a recipe out of my Eat Clean Cookbook every day of the week except for Saturday since we usually eat the leftovers all weekend.  Here is what I've come up with:

Monday: Eat Clean Spaghetti & Meatballs (we've had this before and it's SO good!)
Tuesday: Summer Roasted Salmon (probably my favorite, I make this often) with roasted asparagus & squash mixture
Wednesday: Chicken Stacks (these look so good, can't wait to try it out)
Thursday: Girls' dinner at my friend Heather's house!  I'll be bringing the dessert (of course).  I'm making The Days of Wine and Roses Cake.  I got this recipe from Leslie's Blog, you should check her out.  I love it!
Friday: Pork Tenderloin, broccoli & brown rice
Saturday: Chicken Spaghetti

This cake recipe is "semi-homemade", but from what I've read, it's a total crowd pleaser.  I can't wait to try it.

Hope you're having a wonderful Monday!
XOXOXO

Happy Hump Day!

Hey y'all! Woo, it's Wednesday already! We're halfway there, folks ;) I hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far, I know I have. I'm loving getting back into the routine of being healthy. It makes such a difference. I could have used an extra hour or so of sleep, but I'm thankful the Lord blessed me with another day to live and a job to wake up for each morning. So, I've heard a good bit of feedback about the meal plan (yay, I'm so happy people read my blog, lol!) and I thought I'd share this handy little tool that makes it a little more "fun" for planning your meals throughout the week:

http://printable.tipjunkie.com/menu-planner-free-printable/

Love this website! It's full of useful little gadgets like this!

Meal Plan Monday

It's been awhile since I've posted. We all know how crazy the holidays can be! We had such a great time, but it's nice to get back into the routine. We spent Thanksgiving in Jonesboro & had Christmas in Pensacola. Our first holidays as a married couple ran smoothly & we enjoyed every moment of them. The Lord has truly blessed us with one another and with great in-laws. We couldn't be more thankful!

Speaking of being blessed, our church has been implementing a Solemn Assembly anticipation the whole month of January. It is truly incredible, indescribable even. I feel so moved. I would encourage every single one of you to attend a service and come see for yourself, the Lord can definitely be felt! These past few weeks I have been reading "Returning to Holiness," which is really more of a workbook than an actual book and let me tell you, it breaks you down and makes to reassess yourself more than you could imagine. We all need to keep ourselves in check with our Lord and Savior and align our lives with his principles and teachings. As was said in church a few Sundays ago, the Bible is not a book to understand, it is a book to obey! Great stuff :)

Now onto food - another one of my favorite topics! :) Every Sunday I make a meal plan for the week. It helps my grocery shopping run smoothly so that I don't buy things that aren't needed. I'm a little OCD, I admit. Lists are my friend :) I like the structure and it makes my evenings more enjoyable because I'm not stressing over what to make for dinner. Here it goes:

Monday: Eat Clean Tacos with salsa, gluten free chips & refried beans
Tuesday: Spinach & Bacon Quiche (other ingredients to include mushrooms and zucchini)
Wednesday: Baked Pork Chops, steamed broccoli & brown rice
Thursday: Eat Clean Summer Salmon, steamed asparagus & mashed potatoes
Friday: Either chili or pot roast (since it's supposed to be cold outside)
Saturday: Cactus Flower...YUMMMM
Sunday: Ehh, Sunday's up in the air! Sometimes we go to my parents' for dinner :) And Sunday is also grocery shopping day so I can buy whatever...maybe we'll do Filet Mignon and sweet potatoes.

Being that I make everything homemade each night, this really gets my week started out right. Since Thanksgiving, we haven't been eating so clean & definitely not working out. That all changes tonight. Today is Day 1 of P90X ALLLLLLLL over again...AHH! Help me Lord, I need strength. I know I'm going to be so sore this week. But that's okay, got a lot of weddings coming up and the beach here soon so I've got to get myself back into shape!