I've Been Inspired

Over the years I have had the privilage to meet some amazing women.  Women who are great housekeepers (okay, so I hired a housekeeper to help with this area), wonderful cooks, wonderful mothers, wonderful wives and have inspired me to be the same. 

Part of my personal goal for this year, in addition to cooking and eating healthy is to challenge my cooking/baking skills.  I want to do more things, try new things and make yummy foods!  For the first 5 or more years of my marriage I made the same things for dinner over and over again because I happened to marry a VERY picky eater.  For several years he would only eat meat and potatoes and I'm not talking baked potatoes or mashed potatoes...I'm talking french fries or fried potatoes...that was IT!!  I struggled to find meals to fix without getting bored and making the same thing all the time.  I finally reached a point where I just started making different things and guess what?!  He ate them!!  He didn't like everything but that's okay, it was a start.  Now we have been married 17-1/2 years and he eats almost anything I cook. 

In 2011 I will get out of my cooking rut and try new things!  I will share (or try to remember to) with you my successes, failures and what the family likes or doesn't like. 

To begin, I bought this outstanding cookbook! 

I made the Chocolate Sheet Cake last night and it was a huge hit!  I even took some to a friend and her husband.  (She returned the favor and sent some blueberry cobbler home with me, but on the way home my "famished" dancer daughter ate almost all of it...with her FINGERS!)  Guess I'll have to get that recipe from her so that I can make it for my whole family.  :)

Stay tuned...

P.S.  The other night we ate at a Mediterranean restaurant for the first time!  Let's just say I am now in love with Chicken Shawarma!!!  I'll have to make that soon too!!!

New Year, New Goals, New Dreams and a New Vision for Life

I have decided to set some goals for this year.  I've always called them "resolutions" but I heard in Sunday School that we really don't follow through on "resolutions".  That's obvious for me.  I don't think that I have EVER completed a whole year and followed through on one, SO this year it's GOALS! 

One of my goals is to lose weight and get healthy.  I don't think of myself as morbidly obese, but I am around 50 pounds overweight and it bothers me.  I think what bothers me even more is that I am not healthy.  I appear healthy, no major health problems, but my cholesterol is high, my blood pressure tends to run high, and my HDL is high.  After looking at all of these things my husband told me that I was in the risk category for a stroke!!  That was my reality check!  I am not even 40 years old, I have 3 children, I can't have a stroke!  It took a new year and a program at our church "The 90 Day Fitness Challenge" written by Phil and Amy Parham from the show "The Biggest Loser".  I'm past the point of just losing the weight.  It's a lifestyle change, a change in eating habits and watching what I eat, when I eat and how much I eat. 

I'm a nervous eater.  I'm a social eater.  I'm a boredom eater.  I can eat no matter what mood I'm in so I have to learn to tame that inner beast and calm her down!  SO...as I embark on this journey, I will share with you my progress.  Of course, now that this is out in CyberLand, I HAVE to follow through, because everyone is watching!  YIKES!

Here we go ...
I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought a BUNCH of food.  You see, here in Mississippi, snow isn't common and if it's comin' you better prepare!  So I did!  I also took this opportunity to buy some healthy foods.

I read in my "90-Day Fitness Challenge" that foods should be natural and it mentioned in there blue corn tortilla chips.  (To save my life I can't find it now in that book.) Well, I knew I liked those...I've had them before.  So I bought them, along with some baked tortilla scoops!  I LOVE pita chips with sea salt but the store I was at was completely sold out!  GASP!

Bread - I love white bread.  Wheat bread disgusts me.  I think it is because as a child I was forced to eat wheat, all my friends had white bread for their sandwiches in their lunches, but NOOOOO, I had wheat bread.  Some of those wheat breads may as well just have had grain stalks in a bag and been sold that way because it tasted like they did anyway.  YUCK!  But, I found some bread that I'm going to try.

Snacks - I'm a snacker.  I love breads, pastries, desserts, anything sweet and fattening.  Since all of that has gone straight to my tummy and hips, I need to cut those things out...or at least find healthier options.  But let's face it, a girl's gotta have some "I'm having a bad day" foods so she can splurge and not feel guilty about it.
This is what I chose:

Ice Cream - Frozen Yogurt all the way!!  I bought these delicious Weight Watchers frozen treats and they are yummy!!!

So yesterday, I made homemade guacamole from my Weight Watchers cookbook.  I used to hate guacamole, but this is delicious!!!  It was so amazingly delicious, I decided to share the recipe.
Guacamole
1 ripe avocado
1 plum tomato (I used some of a Roma tomato)
2 scallions, only the white and light green parts (I used pre-chopped onions that you could get from your grocer's salad bar or fresh vegetable section)
1 small jalapeno pepper (Use gloves to prevent irritation) (I skipped it)
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp salt (I used sea salt)

Cut the avocado in half, dig out pit.  Spoon out the inside of the avocado into a small mixing bowl.  Mash with fork to desired consistancy.  Dice your tomato, scallions and jalapenos and then add them to avocado.  Add fresh lime juice and salt.  Mix together all ingredients with fork and serve!  Delicious on the blue corn tortilla chips!!  YUM!!

P.S. I took some pictures of my food options, but I will have to post them later.  :)

New Year, New Goals

My first blog of 2011!  Starting off the year reorganizing all the Christmas decorations.  I spend way too much on plastic storage containers but it's the only way that I feel things are completely organized.  It drives my husband CRAZY, but I think by now he has learned to tolerate my craziness...or maybe just survive it!  :) 

SO, I'm throwing out some Christmas stuff, donating some and doing some overall purging.  Let's face it, my style isn't the same today as it was 18 years ago or even 10 years ago so all the cutesy little stuff with no sentimental value is going...say "bye-bye".  Some of those things are just annoying the dickens out of me but I don't want to lose their memory, so out comes the camera to photograph them and write about why they are special.