Diet

Yep, I'm on a diet.  It's only been 3 weeks but so far it's going really well.  Wanted to jot down some thoughts so that later I can return and revisit. 

First I quit drinking my calories.  My mom recently lost a bunch of weight and as we were talking one day she made the statement "I don't like to drink my calories."  This really resonated with me.  I was a Mountain Dew kinda gal.  So, no more Mountain Dew.  As a matter of fact, I am only drinking water.  I have some reservation about drinking anything other than, like a slipper slope right back to the Dew.  I'm treating it like when I quite smoking.  With drinking though I might feel comfortable to have something other than water down the road but now it just seems like it's too tempting. 

It's all about the calories.  I found a site online to calculate how many calories I should eat daily to achieve my goal weight.  That was a start, I then found this app to track my calories and my weight.  The nice thing about this app is that it recalculates your calories as you loose weight.  I love this.  It's gradual.  It seem more fail proof.  Setting me up for success rather than failure. 

I currently don't eat a lot of veggies or fruit.  I don't dislike them but prep time is hard with having 2 small ones at home.  I know that this will be something that I will gradually incorporate more of in my diet. 

I have lost 6 pounds so far.  Not much when compared to the 60 I want to loose but it's some rather than none. 

I'm not a prepper...

...but I sure want to be.  Well maybe not to the extent of having underground bunkers and getting military trained, but I sure would like to make life easier for my family if SHTF.  I'm starting small as to not tax the budget too much.  I found this list and it's just the starting point I needed and it appears manageable.  I'll also add water to the list.

This is not about economic collapse or shutting down of the grid, this is about being prepared for whatever may happen.  I have little ones and the thought of looking at them in distress because they are hungry and I have nothing to feed them horrifies me.  Whether it's a hurricane or job loss, I want to be able to feed my family.  If I can stock up on food to prep for an upcoming vacation then I can stock up on food for unforeseen hardships. 

The above linked list is a beginning.  I'll add and tweak items as the years go by but I need to start somewhere. I had already planned on doing lots and lots of canning this year anyway so now I have a more urgent reason to do so. 

2/03 - 2/09 Goals

No, I still haven't gotten my cards out.  It will be the first thing I do from this new list of goals.  Let me just say, planning a theme for lunches has been the best idea for lunch prep so far.  This week being Japanese (or general Asian) week will include things like onigiri, and lots of veggies and some fish, and I'm most excited about picking up some unagi. 

I also finished Paul's hat but it's too long so I'll need to pull back a few rows and fix that, boo.  I haven't yet started spinning the rest of the fiber for James sweater, I'm in more of a knitting mood than a spinning mood.  It happens.

Family / Wifery / Friends

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending
• Send January and February birthday card
• plan Valentines dinner

Feed my Soul

• Continue to work on Paul's hat
• Start spinning the remaining fiber for James jacket

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Decide on weeks theme
• prep lunch stuffs
• SAM's stock up trip

Not planning much for Sunday Yumday, we might have hubbies mom over for dinner so there will not be much time for a large canning or prepping adventure.  SAM's to stock up on some chicken, pork chops, and beef. 

Week of Salads 1/27 - 1/31

It's was salad week so Monday I put together a taco salad using leftovers from Sunday night's tacos.  Just let me say...I Love our tacos.  Restaurant tacos are fine but I loves the ones I make at home.  No special recipe.  Just the box kind and my own fav toppers. 

Didn't do lunch at work Tuesday. 

Wednesday was my BBQ Chicken salad. Well kinda. It was inspired by the BBQ chicken salad. 

Thursday's lunch was a deconstructed BBQ Spring roll. 

This is by far my favorite "salad" of the week. The veggies are on a bed of vermicelli rice noodles and the chicken is covered with hoisin sauce. Yum!

Loved this week of salads. They were yummy and filling and nice since I started a diet on Wednesday. 

Next week: Japanese Cooking Week. I love Japanese food. 

1/27 - 2/2 Goals

Got a little more done this week.  A very little.  I did have some sick wee ones so my time was very much needed for cuddling and soothing.   

Family / Wifery / Friends 

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending
• Send January and February birthday card

Feed my Soul

• Continue to work on Paul's hat
• Start spinning the remaining fiber for James jacket

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Decide on theme for lunches - this seems to really help with lunch planning
• prep lunch stuff

I have no intention of trying to can Sunday, it is Superbowl Sunday after all and I'll have a Puppybowl to watch and comercials to enjoy. 

As a note: I didn't mark off that I prepped a weeks worth of lunches from last week's goals but I didn't get a bit done.  I did prep veggies and roast some chicken breast.  Tonight I'll roast some corn and bell pepers. 

Salad week

Theme for a week of lunches? Why not.

This is going to be Salad week. No...I'm not trying to loose weight, I've just seen so many yummy looking salads lately that I want to try. Maybe it will be easier to prep for lunch when I have a theme? Let's see.

Here are my salad inspirations.
BBQ Chicken Salad
BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad
BBQ Chicken Spring Rolls - deconstructed on a bed of rice noodles

Also thinking tacos salad type thing.

Prepping:
Roast frozen corn
Rinse black beans
Chop lettuce
Grill and cook chicken
Chop veggies
Prep dressings
Boil eggs

Now...to take a nap. Been up with sick kids all night. Then I'll start prepping and cooking dinner. We are having tacos, then I'll be using the leftovers for my taco salad lunch.

Snotty week

Sick kids sure do have a way of putting a stop to all productivity. They also have a way of sucking all the energy out of parents to where not even simple daily chores get done. So it's now Sunday and before I could even think about pressure canning some chicken I have to clean the kitchen, go to the farmers market and prep food for lunches. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be a productive person.

1/20 - 126 Goals

This is getting a bit ridiculous.  I can not seem to get motivated to do anything.  I did purchase all the birthday cards but that is it.  I didn't even get laundry done this weekend.  I barely spun anything, not even an ounce.  I didn't pressure can on Sunday nor did I prep anything.  Not sure what is up with my slacking behind but I've got to get this corrected.  I did start Paul's peradiddle hat but didn't do a project bag or anything. 

Family / Wife / Friends

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending.
• Send January birthday cards

Feed my Soul

• General spinning and knitting
• Take purge yarn to store to give away

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Sunday Yumday - pressure can chicken
• Prep week's worth of lunch stuff for me and the kids

I'm going to put a little pressure on myself to get some Sunday Yumday task completed this week. 

1/13 - 1/19 Goals

I didn't accomplish most of the goals I set for myself last week.  I totally lost the wind from my sails.  Let's see I can do this week.  I did get our family vacation to Walt Disney reserved and I got a little crazy planning for that.  But can ya blame me?! 

Family / Wife / Friends

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending.
• Send January birthday cards

Feed my Soul

• Sew another project bag
• Fill that project bag with a kit for Paul's Peradiddle hat which includes needles that I might need to buy
• General spinning and knitting

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Sunday Yumday - pressure can chicken

As planning relates to our vacay I did plan all the meals that we will have for our trip.  We will be gone 4 nights but staying in an RV so most meals will be had at "home".  I made a list of all the planned meals and ingredients for those meals.  I marked the meals that I can start stocking up on so the cost of food will not hit all at once.  I purchased a bin to store our trip stockpile of food items.  More about trip planning in a later post. 

1/6 - 1/12 Goals

This week I'll be getting back into the swing of things as the first full work week of the new year.  I'm going to go easy on myself.

Family / Wife / Friends

• Purchase birthday cards for everyone. Sign and prep for sending.
• Send January birthday cards

Feed my Soul

• Sew another project bag
• Fill that project bag with a kit for Paul's Peradiddle hat which includes needles that I might need to buy
• General spinning and knitting

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Sunday Yumday - pressure can chicken

Sunday Yumday

Today was very productive and I'm feeling real proud of myself. I was able to put together 8 meals, 1 of which we had for dinner.I made 3 of this Baked Teriyaki Chicken.  I also made 3 of this Salisbury Steak recipe. And I made 2 meatloaves which is from my own recipe.

I did not however get to the farmers market and I know I'll be regretting that this week but the first part of the day was spent sleeping in which never happens for me anymore. But Scooter Bug was with the grandparents and hubby took Pea Pod to the coffee shop with him so mommy enjoyed some extra zzz's.

7 Day Goals

12/30 - 1/5 Goals

Family / Wife / Friends

• Discuss my 2014 theme with Hubby and request his support
• Enjoy New Years with Family - focusing only on them.
• Purchase birthday cards for everyone.  Sign and prep for sending.
• Send January birthday cards

Feed my Soul

• Ply Paul's hat yarn
• Attend first Saturday spinning group

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Grate and dehydrate veggies for meal prep
• Prep a freezer meal - to be determined

Dehydrating for meal prep

I found this great recipe from Weelicious.  She is amazing and when my mom bought me her Lunches book for Christmas and it completely opened my eyes to how I can be feeding my family.  I know it's geared more towards kids but I felt so much of the info was relevant to the whole family. 

As you can imagine I got all excited about this recipe for Crock Pot Vegetable Ziti and was going to make it for dinner tonight which for me means putting everything in the pot the night before and storing it in the fridge.  But, by the time I got to the prep part, my daughter was in bed and there was no way I was going to rev up the food processor, so no ziti tonight. 

My solution for this problem is to take some Sunday Yumday time and grate bunches of carrots, zucchini, and squash and dehydrate them.  I will also dehydrate some chopped onions and bell peppers.  I could either store everything in mason jars separately or make little prepackaged dealies with all the ingredients together.  I'll try both and see which one I like the best.  I have in the past dehydrated veggies to smuggle into my families food so this recipe will be a nice addition to my veggie smuggling adventures.  Not to say that I want to smuggle all their veggies, I want them to grow up knowing what they are eating, but the occasional smuggling isn't a bad thing. 

So, what am I taking away from last night's fail?  I'm going to gather some recipes that call for grated veggies, throw the veggies in the food processor and then dehydrate them for future use. 

almost time...

It's coming up on the New Year and the pressure is on.  This is where things would fail for me.  It's like that guy that spins all the plates, I'm that guy but you know a girl.  But unlike that guy, I won't do very good with keeping them going.  I have all these great plans and great ideas that I've complied and decide to put into action and then crash, all the plates hit the ground.  I'm sure that it's all in the planning and then following through with the plan. 

45 minutes...

Note:  This post was writen last week and I forgot to post it.  Oops.  Who cares right

This morning I got up at the butt-crack-of-dawn and decided to fix my lunch.  It bears noting that this was not on purpose but since I was up I decided to pack a bento lunch.  Thankfully I was up early as it took me an unbelievable amount of time to prepare.  45 minutes to be exact.  45 MINUTES!!!  That is not acceptable and clearly a good place to start trimming the fat, and by “fat” I mean Time.

Problem #1: I cooked everything from scratch.  Today’s lunch consisted of shredded hoisin chicken with roasted bell peppers, cooked broccoli and carrots, sliced cucumber, and rice with furikake.  The only thing that was prepped was the shredded chicken. 

I have pinpointed 2 major flaws in my prepping process.  1.  Not enough pre-prepped items.  2.  Poorly organized supplies. 

So my initial idea for today’s lunch was to boil some ramen noodles, but in the mist of prep I found that I was out…what…how can I be out of ramen noodles?  Who’s been eating my ramen noodles?  Anyway, I had to come up with something else, but I didn’t have many options so I settled on sushi rice.  Don’t feel too sorry for me, I love plain ol’ sushi rice.  Although an easy task to rinse and cook, it does take some time.  I’ve come up with on time suck so now for the solution: check the panty before planning or starting and make sure you have what is needed for the meal.  This could also mean prepping the rice the night before to save time in the morning.  I just rinse the rice and fill with proper amount of water and allow to soak overnight.  I have seen people make large batches of rice and freeze it for easy prep, but in my experience I haven’t enjoyed the texture that resulted from the freezing.  Overnight prep of rice is my preferred method. 

Next time suck: mise en place, actually the lack of mise en place.  Granted I did mise en place this morning but a better solution would be to have some bento staples already chopped, sliced, or steamed.  Here is also where a freezer stash would have been handy (good info and more good info on freezing bento staples).  So for this bento I could have used some individually wrapped steamed broccoli florets and roasted bell peppers.  Some may like the roasted bells from a jar which would have worked but I don’t like the taste.  Guess I’m kind of a picky eater.  It would also have benefited me to have the cucumbers and carrots already sliced and ready. 

Problem #2: lack of organization.  This is an easy one to describe…I need one place for all my bento supplies.  Even if it means having duplicates of some gadgets and tools to ensure they are available and not in the dishwasher or put in the wrong place.   I would also like to have pre-portioned items on hand to toss in as needed (kinda like this but an adult version).  This will be more helpful when I’m packing Scooter Bug’s lunches but could also be a benefit for my bentos.    

Ok, I think I'll better success in bento making and lunch packing if I can incorporate theses things into my routine or process. I'll update with my progress. 

My wish

Time...

My theme for next year is Time Management.  Below are the reasons I need better time management for myself at home. 

I want time to relax with the family.   Who doesn’t want this? 

I want to get dinner on the table before 6.  Seems easy enough but doesn’t seem to happen as often as I would like.

I want time to create.  Whether it’s time for spinning, sewing, knitting, or whatever my creative heart’s desire; I need time to do these things.

I want time to pack lunches.  My lunch, and in the fall I will be packing Scooter Bug’s lunch for school, I will not only want to do this but need to do it.  For the record, I love packing bentos.  Just sayin’.  I’ll probably be posting pics of those Bento’s on this blog. 

time management to keep mommy sane

This mommy needs more time or better time management.  Officially staring Jan 1st my theme for 2014 will revolve around better home/life/work time management.  I'm gathering ideas now and will share as a find them and update this blog with my wins and fails. 

I'm currently on the search for ways to streamline dinner. 

I found a way to streamline cleaning the house by creating a chore list for everyday.  My hope is that it will allow more time for the weekend for more fun things.  I'm also not that into tackling cleaning the entire house all at once.  I get bored.  I get overwhelmed.  I get discouraged.  My hope is that breaking it up will keep the house tidy while keeping the mommy sane.  We will see if that works.