Healthy Chicken Parmesan

So my husband had an absolute stroke of brilliance !!! I always run my mouth about my passion for eating healthy, but I totally underestimated him! He was listening ladies. It is possible!! I credit the book/journal “30 Days of Encouraging Your Husband” By Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It is fantastic. Its not for the faint of heart, but it is a GREAT resource to build and grow your family.

Anyways! Recipe! (Food processor needed)

Ingredients: 

• 4 chicken breasts, fat trimmed and sliced in half to make 8.
• Almonds
• Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/4 Cup grated Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil (We use extra virgin.)
• 3/4 cup Mozzarella Cheese (We use antibiotic, hormone, preservative free. Organic if possible. But its not always possible.)
• 1 Cup Tomato sauce (We use organic from Costco. It comes in bulk and our girls love it with their healthy spaghetti!)

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 450. Lightly grease a large baking sheet. (We used more olive oil)
2. In a food processor, use half almonds and half old fashioned oats and make a almond/oat flour (I eyeball this. You want about 3/4 cup of almond/oat flour). Combine the parmesan cheese with the flour.
3. Brush the olive oil onto the chicken, then dip the chicken into the flour/cheese mixture. Place on baking sheet and repeat with the rest of the chicken.
4. Brush a little more olive oil on top and bake for 25 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and spoon 1 tbsp of sauce over each piece of chicken and top with 1 1/2 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.

We ate it with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. The potatoes were made with butter and almond milk. The veggies were lacking a bit because I like to be able to fill half my plate with veggies right now to make sure I’m getting my veggies in on the Shaklee 180 diet, but it was an incredible meal! I begged my husband to make it for me on a romantic night sometime soon! YUM!!! Enjoy!

Bell Pepper Pizzas

I found this on pinterest. This is a fun one to make with your kiddos! They will also be much more inclined to actually eat it if they help out. 😉 Keep striving for those veggies!! The health benefits are SO worth it.

Ingredients:
1 large bell pepper
1/4 cup pizza or spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup grated cheese
a pinch of red pepper flakes
a pinch of basil or parsley
toppings (I love adding broccoli to mine.)

Instructions
1. Pre-heat your oven or toaster to 350.
2. Slice off each of the four sides of your pepper and lay flat on a baking sheet.
3. Top with sauce, then cheese, followed by any veggie!
4. Bake for 10 minutes, turning your oven to broil towards the end.
5. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and basil/parsley.
6. YUM!

So you’re thinking about having kids…

(Disclaimer: If you’re not a Christian, stop reading, you’re not going to want to read this. My faith is my lifeline and I talk very much about it in this blog post.)
My husband always jokes around and tells everyone not to have kids. And believe me, I get that. I just stepped away from typing up this blog post about ten times after finishing two sentences. No joke! And I argued with my 2 year old that the pepper pizza we ate for lunch is hot. Not cold.
It was a full-blown debate.
Think mind blown from stupidity.
I then went on to start World War III with a stare down when I told my 3 year old she needs to eat this pepper crusted pizza before she can play. I’m holding an 8 month old while I type.
My 4 year old also likes to touch…a lot. She never stops talking. So if she’s not talking, she’s making someone else make a whole lot of noise. I could go on and on about what it looks like in our little home right now, but I think you get the picture. You might be thinking “I could never do that.” Or maybe “WHY would you do that?! What sane human being inflicts themselves with that kind of crazy and still wants more kids?” Or “how the heck are you blogging? Why would you even try to blog?”

The answer to the last question is this: If I don’t, who will? Who will tell you that it may look crazy and legitimately be crazy and messy to have children but that the bible calls children blessings? Who will tell you that the reality is no matter how long you wait, you’re never going to be ready for kids? Who will tell you that kids are one of the biggest tools God uses to shape you into the person He wants you to become? Who will tell you that when God gives you kids in any way, shape or form, it is one of the highest, most precious callings? Who will encourage you to tell the next generation what you know? I wish that someone had told me things about having kids and consistently checked up on me and encouraged me.

So I blog. I blog to tell you that its ok to have crazy and messy. God loves you anyway. I blog to encourage you because God knows I find myself in places I am in dire, dire need of encouragement too. I blog to inspire you to be the best you can be. I blog to tell you that God is with you. That He’s proud of you for raising those children and that it isn’t crazy and messy forever. I’m blogging to help remind my future self of the truth too.

The truth is this: keep pushing forward! Never stop learning. Strive to grow in your spiritual walk even though you’re tired…I know you’re tired or will be tired…like not a full night’s sleep in 5 years tired. I get that 100%. I get feeling lonely and like nobody understands.
I’m learning the hard way that we need to strive to train our minds to remember the truth. I cannot emphasize how crucial this is. Look to the Bible even if it doesn’t make sense. Even if all the words blur on the pages no matter how many cups of coffee you’ve had. Keep leading your heart and mind to the truth that God loves you and God is with you. Always. He desires to teach you. He desires to train you. He desires to still your mind and give you peace if you just let Him. Relax. Let Him.

Fertility…Pregnancy…Postpartum…Breastfeeding…Do you have questions?

For some, childbearing comes easily. It’s normal to think of married life with children in the picture somewhere along the road and all the sweet baby giggles and baby things.

But for some others, this is a source of constant pain. The reminder that there isn’t a little one to hold and love. My goal in hosting this event is to encourage you!

There are still other moms who are just struggling with pregnancy or postpartum depression. You’re confused because you know that your baby is the best thing to ever happen to you, but you just don’t feel it! You’re sad or anxious but don’t want to tell anyone because the typical response is something like “cherish them while you have them!”
I am for you too mama.

This journey is hard!! Sometimes we just need to know that someone is in our corner, cheering us on. That is the purpose of this event, to extend support and encouragement! Join us! We’d love to have you!

Healthy Shepherd’s Pie

I will have to add a picture later, as we ate the end product SO fast I forgot to take a picture.

This recipe is from Brooke Thomas and it is SO. GOOD.

My hubby was pleasantly surprised at how good this was. Especially since I replaced his beloved mashed potatoes for cauliflower. I’m still working with my kiddos on eating veggies…sometimes it seems like they have a veggie radar! Ugh! At least I get veggies into them with the Life Shakes. They can’t even tell in those!

Anywho! Yummy recipe below! You will need a food processor or a blender.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of grass fed meat. (Ground beef, chicken, turkey, pork…almost any ground meat will work)
• 1 Onion, diced.
• 1 Teaspoon of minced garlic or garlic powder.
• 2 Carrots, chopped.
• 1 Cup of frozen peas.
• 1 Tablespoon each of rosemary, sage and thyme
• 1 Head of cauliflower, chopped and boiled in water until soft.
• 2 Tablespoons of raw butter.
• Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a deep-sided, oven safe saute pan, add the ground beef and saute on medium heat until browned. Drain any excess fat/grease and return the beef to the pan. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and peas and cook until softened. Turn the heat off and toss in the herbs along with the salt and pepper.
3. In a blender or food processor, add cauliflower, butter and salt to taste and blend until smooth. Spoon the mixture on top of the meat and press into an even layer with your spatula.
4. Bake in the oven, on the middle rack, for 20 minutes. Let it sit a few minutes before serving.

 

Yum! Enjoy!!

 

Basic H2 Review

Say hello to my favorite cleaner!! I use this almost daily! You can say goodbye to chemical smells and headaches, and hello to green cleaning bliss. This is SO. Simple. And I need simple. I’m a mom of four. Girls.

So here we go!

Cons:

• It doesn’t have a strong smell like regular cleaners. That can take a minute to get used to. I think we’ve come to equate strong smells with clean, but studies show thats not really the case.
• It can be a bit to wrap your head around as you get used to a new way of cleaning.

Pros:

• You can use this stuff for SO. MUCH. No more confusion on what to use to clean!
• This bottle costs $10-$12, depending on member or retail price. And guess what? It lasts me about a year. Talk about how much you SAVE using this.
• You different amounts of Basic H2 with about 16ozs of water for various things. Again. Simple.
• Did I say you can use this for so much? Like…pesticide for gardening and washing your veggies? Its 100% safe and so much better!
• It becomes a favorite. And I had no favorite cleaners before. I clean so much more now that I have Shaklee cleaners!
• We’ve lived in military housing for a bit and jumped around a couple of houses here and there. Every time we moved out, we got asked if we hired a maid service and were told we did an amazing job cleaning. They thought we spent hours on it, but the truth was that we just used Shaklee the whole time we lived there and the dirt build up was just not there like it is in houses that use chemical cleaners! We gave everything a good wipe down but thats it!
• I don’t think I mentioned that YOU CAN USE IT FOR SO MUCH. We’ve used it for bug spray successfully.

 

Love it! Stay healthy!

Honey Garlic Shrimp

Oh my goodness this recipe is SO good!! And so simple! You can whip it up in such a short amount of time. About 20 minutes. If you like shrimp and you have it on hand, this can be done super quickly. It serves 4 adults(or two adults and three little people, as in our case).

My little ones weren’t too keen on this recipe though, so if you’re looking for a kid-friendly option, this may or may not be it. Haha!

I’ve tried marinating the shrimp for 15 minutes before cooking and I’ve also done it for several hours. It tastes SUPER yummy both ways.

Get ready for food happiness! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup of reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
• optional: 1 Teaspoon of minced, fresh ginger
• 1lb medium uncooked shrimp. Peeled and deveined.
• optional: chopped green onion for garnish

Directions:

1. Whisk the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger (if using) together in a medium bowl.
2. Place shrimp in a large zipped-top bag or tupperware. Pour 1/2 of the marinade mixture on top, give it all a shake or stir, then allow shrimp to marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or for up to 8-12 hours. Cover and refrigerate the rest of the marinade for step 3.
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place shrimp in the skillet. (Discard used marinade².) Cook shrimp on one side until pink– about 45 seconds– then flip shrimp over. Pour in remaining marinade and cook it all until shrimp is cooked through, about 1 minute more.
4. Serve shrimp with cooked marinade sauce and a garnish of green onion. The sauce is excellent on brown rice and steamed veggies on the side.

When we say “I Do”…

The topic of marriage has been on my mind a lot lately the last few weeks. My marriage…the marriage my husband just watched fall apart…the marriage I’m witnessing that is full of silence and frustration…the marriage of two people I know that are just making it work because of circumstance, but they don’t feel “in love” and never really have.

The marriage of two teenagers raising a kid and they’re yelling at each other in public. The marriages that ended on the phrase “it just wasn’t working anymore.” It seems like everywhere we go, marriage has become a curse and not a blessing like God designed it to be.

What is this thing called marriage? And why does it seem like nobody really makes it work? Why have we become too afraid to get married? There hasn’t been a single generation before us that decided getting married later in life is normal or the best for us…so why are we doing it now?

What about that couple that has grown old together? What about that 30 something couple that has older kids and just seem so in love and happy? They hug often and laugh together. Every once in a while there’s a glimmer of what God designed marriage to be. We see it. We can’t help but notice it because it’s so beautiful. God designed it to be that way. God designed marriage to be something that reflects who HE is.

So how do we find it? How do we get there? In a world that seems so far gone with broken people everywhere you look, how on earth do we feel comfortable getting married?!

I think right now we think of marriage very much like a new house that is ready to buy. You walk into a brand new house with your realtor or salesman, you decide you like it, maybe after comparing a few other places, you buy it.

We “look around” at people and consider what they have for us, just like buying a house. We consider how they’re going to make us comfortable. We want to be sure to pick the right one, the one that looks the best, the one that suits our tastes the most.

I think we have the right idea. Marriage is supposed to be a safe place. It’s supposed to be our home. But we go about it all wrong.

What if we choose to build the relationships? What if we decided to build things from the ground up and make a commitment even though it looks like a hole in the ground at the beginning, before we lay the foundation? What if we chose to look towards the future instead of focusing on how much it doesn’t look like other relationships? What if we looked at it as a work in progress, a tool to become a better person, and not the fix to our problems? What if we labored over the relationship with love? With commitment even though its scary because the other person could choose to stop being committed? With careful, slow decision-making? What if we decided that its going to be hard, but worth it to reflect God’s kingdom? What if we looked at each relationship as a tool that God is using to shape our hearts? What if we trusted Him and invested wisely in our relationships? What if we looked at each relationship as a means to glorify our Creator?

Now I’m not claiming I know everything about marriage! I’m only coming up on 6 years of being married to my favorite person, my one and only, my soulmate, and I still am learning DAILY what it means to be married. Guess what? He stinks sometimes! He makes disappointing decisions that I don’t understand sometimes. I just plain don’t like him sometimes! But I strongly believe that its our job to lead our hearts to love and respect our spouses. Its super easy to get caught up in shortfalls. Train yourself to remember the good and delight in that.

I’m going to leave you with a quote. Elisabeth Elliot once said something like this: “A person, if they are very generous, may allow that their spouse lives up to eighty percent of their expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that they’d like to change, and they may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it very much. OR simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy. It’s a down-to-earth illustration of a principle: Accept, positively and actively, what is given to you. Let thanksgiving be the habit of your life.”