Hello 2013

Well here we are, the start of a new year. It's that time of the year when resolutions are made as an attempt to correct various things in our lives; losing weight, quitting smoking, exercising more, etc. As a habitual resolution-breaker I know that most of us set ourselves up to be let down, we set goals that are not attainable immediately and when we see that we give up and go back to our old ways. Not this year, not for me, hopefully not for you. Make a promise to yourself to set small goals and reward yourself each time you meet your goal. Continue that all year and you'll soon realize that those small milestones put together were huge.

I'll be adding more of my favorite recipes soon, of course they will include points values. Check back soon for them!

Here's to a great 2013!

Yummy food: Some of my favorites so far

We are always looking for new, healthy recipes. My favorite place to look for these is skinnytaste.com.  There are so many recipes to choose from and it is so easy to find what you are looking for on the site!
We have tried so many from the site it would take me forever to write about them all, so I'll just touch on a few of my favorites.
~You can click on any of the recipe names to be linked to the recipe on skinnytaste.com. I'm just going to give you the name and few things I like about the recipe and let you decide. I will add beside the recipe, for those of you on Weight Watchers, the points plus value for each recipe!~

Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana:



Points +: 5
Servings: 8





I have only made this one time but it is so delicious! It does take some time to make until you get the hang of rolling the chicken and making sure it doesn't come un-done. It is definitely worth the effort to make!

 

 

Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Baked Stuffed Chicken:

Points +: 9

Servings: 4

 

When I first saw that the recipe was 9 points+ I was a little hesitant about trying this. I usually look for a recipe or main part of a meal with fewer points. We only eat one of these with our meal, I think it is plenty because we also have salad and a vegetable, the serving size is TWO chicken breasts. It will be well worth 9 points to eat both of the chicken breasts per serving. This is one of our favorite recipes, the combonation of chicken, cheese, bacon and pepper... it is to die for!

 **Just a warning, I have used store bought peppers to use in this recipe, they are not hot but they do give it a good flavor. Be careful when cutting any type of hot pepper, capsacien reactions are not fun!**

 

 

Chicken Cordon Bleu:

Points +: 5

Servings: 12

We have made this once and it was good. It was just the right combonation of chicken, ham and tangy (from the mustard). We haven't made it again really because there are so many recipes that we have to try.

 

 

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Points +: 6

Servings: 9

These are amazing, I can't count the number of times I have made these. It is like a personal lasagna. My husband and I both love these, they're easy to make, taste great and are only 6 points. It also helps that the recipe calls for cheese, more cheese, a little more cheese and some sauce, oh and lasagna noodles. For those of you who can't cook every single night and are interested in freezing meals go here to check out how to make some great skinny recipes that you can freeze for later! I could go on forever about this recipe, but I'll let you be the judge!

P.S. we just had these again for dinner last night!

 

BLT Macaroni Salad

Points +: 4

Servings: 7

I have only made this once and it wasn't a big hit with my husband but I want to put it out there because this really is pretty tasty! It's hard making things for just two people some times especially when it is salads like this. He's not a fan of raw spinach or tomatoes either so I don't think that helped much. I however really enjoyed it and I think it would be a great recipe to make and take to a family picnic or gathering!

 

 

Baby Red Potato Salad

Points +: 3

Servings: 6

This recipe is one my husband loved, as did I. He keeps asking for it but I just haven't gotten around to making it again.  Usually with a potato salad you get a mayonaise, calorie and fat packed dish. Not with this potato salad! It's light enough to be good for you just not too light that everyone knows it's good for them. I really think this could be the perfect potato salad!

All of the pictures and recipes are from www.skinnytaste.com. Click on the link or click HERE to find more delicious and healthy recipes!!

MIA

I haven't written anything in a while- a couple months to be exact.
We just celebrated our one year anniversary! Time sure does fly, it seems like just yesterday we were still getting organized, planning and paying for our wedding. In the past year we've both learned a lot and there have been some changes.  We learned real quick that a marriage was 50-50 and it was something we both had to put effort in to. We've pretty much got a routine down as to who does what (i.e. keeps track of the bills, takes out the trash, does the laundry etc.), though for the most part it is definitely 50-50.
From earlier posts you saw we got 6 chicks in hopes of having fresh eggs. One passed away the day we brought them home. A month or so later another passed away suddenly (possibly because we changed food or because it ate something it shouldn't have while running around in the back yard), leaving us with 4. Sadly, last night another of our now hens, they are no longer cute baby chicks, passed away. We are now down to 3 hens (at least we're hoping they're hens). We've been trying to do little projects around the house and just prepare for the upcomming school year which starts August 27th! I'll finally be in nursing school, and I'm sure that will consume most of my life! We have been trying lots of new recipes and I will write some posts about them a little later.
Other than that it's been pretty low key in our lives recently.

Three of the four hens, taken a while ago while there were still four. They're getting so big!

Birds and food

Well it's already nearing the end of May, time flies!!
We're still working on the chickens "house" pictures of that to come later. The chickens are growing like crazy, they're not cute little chicks anymore!
We're hoping to have them outside soon but it's raining today and supposed to rain the next couple days so we'll see.

I started my garden this past weekend. I'm hoping we have some good luck this year. I'm growing a little of everything and if all goes well we'll be eating some good all natural, organic veggies this year :-)

After the finishing touches are put on the chicken coop I'll post pictures and an update. And at that point I'll start talking about our next big project :-)

Things are changing

It's been a little while since I've updated, things have been a little hectic.  There have been some big events happening around our little home and they have kept me pretty busy. Since I last posted we've been working on the shed in our back yard, we're converting it into the chickens new home.  It's a pretty big project and we haven't been able to finish it as quickly as we had hoped but it's getting there. Another of our chickens passed away on Sunday, it was a shock because they all seemed so happy, now there are only four of them. They're getting so big.  Sunday wasn't a good day at our house, my 16 year old kitty Bubba passed away also, this wasn't a shock but it still hurts.

In other big news... I got accepted in to Nursing School!!! This was amazing news (that I recieved in March).  Our life as we know it will change drastically in August when I start school but it's a well worth it journey and we know how challanging it will be. 

Life couldn't be any better than it is right now, and for that I'm truly greatful! 

Spring time!

Spring is finally here, not that this winter was bad, and that means work on the outside of the house begins. We've been busy pulling out bushes, cutting up trees and just cleaning up in general. This weekend we added another project to the list: making our existing shed in the back yard into a nice little home for chickens! Yep, chickens :-) we went into a store that had chicks for sale and with some convincing Brad agreed we could get some. A minimum of 6 must be purchased and we had one pass away (I've been told this is normal) but so far we have 5 healthy, adorable, and fast growing chicks. I'm excited to watch them grow and change. Here they are hanging out under their heat lamp. There will be more updates on them as they grow.
Other than the yard work, projects and chicks our life has been pretty calm. Still figuring out this crazy thing called life...

Our kids

How could I forget to mention our "babies" in my other post?! Shame on me! Well here they are Tiki and Layla, my babies :-) Tiki just turned 8 in January and Layla will be 4 at the end of this month. As for human kids... Not for a while these two are just fine :-)