Cooking Healthy Meals

I'm sitting here looking through my 'Biggest Loser Family Cookbook' when I happen upon a page that says: "Try to cook a few extra meals on the weekends or always make enough for leftovers. When you have a precooked dinner at home, you're less tempted to pull up to the drive-thru, and you won't waste your calories on food that won't keep you full and nourished."

Now what I didn't I think of that before? The last 6 weeks I've been cooking meals every-night. Well, mostly every-night. There has been some times we've cheated and went out to dinner, but we got right back on track the next day. I've just been in a weird mood the last 3 weeks or so where I don't want to cook anything, or I'm bored of the simple meal plans we've been following on the sparkdiet. I've been spending my extra time browsing websites and checking out library books to get some different ideas that are of course low calorie. I have came across many recipes that I've wanted to try where the ingredients are too hard to find in store, or it's too long of a process to prepare/make. I guess that discouraged me. I just want out of this funk and back to  cooking. I can say this book is helping me tremendously.. I love it! Their recipes are super easy, and delicious. I've already made their nachos, buffalo chicken egg rolls, and tonight I am doing a sloppy joe meat loaf. I will let you know how that turns out.

Anyway, I'm going to try it out and cook next nights dinner or get it all prepared to be cooked and see if that works for us. I think it will. Sometimes Stephen doesn't get home from work til 7:30-8pm and by that time we are starving. I like to wait until he's home to eat, as a family, but lately I've been having to start it early because I just can't go that long without eating food. If I could just reheat something, that would save so much time.

I would already have dinner going by now.. as its almost 7pm, but unfortunately my hamburger turned green. I guess it doesn't hold well in the refrigerator for longer than 2 days past sell by date.? I was not even going to chance it. So Stephen is picking a pack up from the store on his way home. He said it shouldn't be too much longer. Patiently waiting.........

Guess who's back?

Did you guys miss me? Probably not.

I don't know what happen. I guess I just got busy with life, family, vacations, or I was just lazy and neglected my blog. Whatever it was.. I shouldn't let happen again.

Here's what has happen over the last two years..

I know I talked about Disneyland back in 2012. We did go and we had an amazing time! We spent a week down there and that wasn't even enough time. We are planning on going back in 2015.

We moved to a new city. Hubby got a promotion and moved to a different hotel property. It's with the same company so that's good. I'm not sure how I like about the move though. It's different here. We are only a half hr away but I barely have any friends here and I feel my heart was left somewhere else. I am getting used to it, I mean, I better.. we aren't planning on moving for awhile.

My oldest daughter is about to turn 7! I can't believe it..  time just zips on by. She's in 1st grade this year, and although she hates the long school hours (kindergarten only being 4 hrs here) she is adjusting and doing well.

 After 4 years of trying to give our oldest a sibling it was finally happening. We found out early in January. I was in shock for months, but so so excited. I think everyone was. We welcomed our second daughter in October. Just in time for mama's birthday. She was born 2 weeks before.. what a great birthday present.

We are adjusting to being a family of four, and all of us are doing well. I can't wait to get back into blogging and getting some "me" time..

My life is going to change for the next month or so..

So today I adopted my nieces. I have legal temporary guardianship over them while my younger sister gets her act together and into a rehab program. I won't go into further details about her, but it's pretty bad and I hate seeing my nieces suffer because their mother is selfish. Their father is in the picture but he isn't any better, and is in-fact worse.

For the next month, we are now a family of 5. I will have a 1 year old, 3 year old, and my 4 daughter year old daughter. That's going to be a lot of SASS in this house. I'm sure it will be tough at first, but god doesn't give me anything I can't handle. We will adjust. I will provide them with a loving stable home so they are not hurting anymore.

Weight Loss.

I wanted to wait a month to see what kind of results I would get before I ended up blogging about it. My fiance and I started a low calorie diet 30 days ago. We have cut our calorie intake to 1200-1500 calories a day. I don't know how many calories we were eating before but if I had to estimate I would guess around 3000-5000 calories a day. It's shocking to see how many calories are in what. I feel ashamed for not paying attention before. So 30 days ago, I was 22lbs heavier. Yes, that's right.. I've lost 22lbs in 30 days. That is with no additional exercise, other than the normal everyday living. I feel a whole lot better. I feel healthier and  my energy has increased slightly. My headaches have disappeared, but that also could be from the abscess tooth. I like cooking healthy for me, and my family, and experimenting with new things. I thought it would be hard, and I  would give up like all the other diets I've tried, but it's not. This is what is working for us, and I can't wait to see what this journey brings us.

22lbs down. 50 more to go.

I can't be the only one..

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, a "Blah" day. Well, yesterday I had one. I'm not exactly sure what brought it on but I do not like the feeling. I guess you can say I'm a little blue. I have been since I lost my job. I watched my friends daughter for the last 1 1/2 years, and last week she blew up on me because I was concerned about her daughter having ringworm in my household. She apparently didn't know ringworm was contagious, and thought I was attacking her and calling her daughter poison. I'm actually glad it's over with because she was dragging me down a lot and was always negative, and insecure. I have put up with it far too long, and now it's time to get myself back on track. I did lose my income, but that's not permanent. I can always find another job, but for now I'm going to take a break and concentrate on myself and my family. I need to spend some one on one time with my daughter.