How I'm Spending Summer Break

1. Pinterest.... Not that this is different from any other day, but I am working on something here.... I decided that my boards are over loaded! I have an enormous amount of pins that I will either never actually use or I have no clue that are there. With that said, I have decided to reorganize my pinterest boards. Instead of yummy recipes, I now have yummy breakfast ideas, yummy lunch ideas, and yummy dinner. My teacher board has been broken into about 30 categories. This is not fun at all, but I feel like I will get more use out of pinterest this way. 

2. I decided to plant a pot garden... Not working out so well. My herbs are doing well. My jalapenos are doing well... the strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, and cukes are not. Kind of sad.

3. Cooking! Also nothing new, but I am actually meal planning to help me save money and boost my weight loss! So far, so good! July will be better with the money saving because I will be a little more organized!

4. Reading! I read Diary of A Mad Fat Girl in about 6 hours. It's fantastic! I am dying to read the sequel, but I don't have the money to buy it this month. They have one copy in the entire Hinds Co. Public Library system, but it's checked out right now. I hope it gets turned in soon! 

Other than these 4 things, I am pretty boring. Staying up late, sleeping in, hanging out with friends, playing some games, watching a lot of tv, and doing a good bit of walking. 

Did I mention that I am also facebook stalking all of these people and their pool/beach pictures.... living a glamorous life through the lives of others via facebook!

Weight Loss Wednesday.... Grocery List

I have a lot of people asking me what I eat and what I buy at the grocery store while I am losing weight. so this week, I will be sharing some of my favorites that end up in my cart every time I am at the store! I probably have about 20 staples, but today, I'm just going to share my top 9!

1. Greek Goddess Plain Greek Yogurt! 

This stuff is WONDERFUL with a little xypstick and strawberries. I eat this at least 4 times a week! Good source of protein! I have tried and looked at every label of almost every plain greek yogurt, and this wins hands down!

2. Eggs!

I eat these boiled, poached, scrambled, in an omelet, in my salad.... Quick and Easy Protein!

3. Pre- Cooked Bacon

I eat this alone, with eggs, on my salad, on my sandwich.... It's super thin and crispy, so it has fewer calories and sodium content! Not as fatty as other brands, so it's more protein!

4. Laughing Cow Cheese!

This is seriously my favorite! Easiest way to add flavor with out a bunch of added calories and sodium! 30 calories per wedge! Perfect with almost anything! I even like their sweet flavors!

5. Weight Watchers Cheese Sticks

These are actually cheeper than the other versions, and they have fewer calories, sodium, and other things. Other brands probably taste a little better, but I can't justify the price over how cheep these are!

6. Jif Natural Peanut Butter To- Go

I LOVE peanut butter, and I have a hard time stopping at the suggested serving size, so these are good for watching the servings (because pb is high in calories!). I also like that I can keep these with me if I get hungry!

7. 100 Calorie Pack Cocoa Roasted Almonds

These are just perfect. They cure my sweet tooth every time! No, they are not as healthy as regular almonds, but they are a lot healthier than chocolate covered almonds!!!

8. Bacon wrapped Pork Loin

These are like $1.50 at Walmart, and they are sooooooooo good! They come in individual portions, so you can decide how many you want to cook. Yes, pork and bacon is high in sodium, so I try to eat this for lunch or earlier in the evening. They are just soooo goood- especially for the price!!! 

9. Frozen Chicken Breast

Thanks to pinterest, there are a million recipes I like to try with chicken. These bags of chicken are easy for me as a single girl to cook up each night. Just remove the amount I like from the bag and cook! And, the price isn't too bad either!

So, now you have my top 9 staples! What are some of your staples?

Teacher Tuesday... a look back on the 12-13 school year!

Today, I am looking back at some of my creations from the 2012- 2013 school year! I really got into decorating this school year! This post will look at some of my decor and the famed Read Across America Day!!!

Each 9 weeks had a theme this year for AR, so each 9 weeks, the library got a makeover!!

1st 9 weeks theme was "Go for the Goal," and I got to put my Michael Phelps obsession on display :)

front entrance

Side Entrance

Wall Display- their names went on a star when they reached their goal.

2nd 9 weeks we had a popcorn theme, "Pop Open a Good Book and Meet Your Goal."

Their name went on a piece of popcorn when they met their goal.

Christmas

I got busy during Christmas! Got rid of all of the AR decor and went Christmas CRAZY!

The right is my version of the book tree I found on pinterest (on the left).

This is when I decided to get Dr. Seuss CRAZY!

A wreath I made for the front office!

The side entrance was turned into a gingerbread house!

Read Across America Day 2013 :) 

We had a great day! Our theme was "Reading is Our Thing."

We had guest speakers, activities, special visitors, a themed snack section, and a basketball game!

The library door, LORAX, greets the students!

Background

Horton

Cat In the Hat

Office Door

Dr. Seuss Books

Happy Birthday Banner

Thing 1 and Thing 2

A look at the Dr. Seuss area.

Beezelnut Splash  (fruit punch)

The snack table!

Truffula Trees and seeds (cookie sticks and nerds jelly beans)

Butter Battle Crackers and cream cheese

One Fish, Two Fish (gold fish)

Hop on Pop (popcorn)

Go Dog Go (cocktail weenies)

Guest Speakers... Mr. and Miss. Junior at JSU

Kids enjoying the speakers.

Cat in the Hat :)

It was a GREATTTTTTT day!!! 

Meal Planning Monday

Time for Meal Planning Monday again!

I didn't get around to cooking the honey mustard crockpot chicken saturday evening since the fam was coming to Clinton yesterday for hibachi, so I put it in last night for this week! I really did some digging this week to find recipes to eat honey mustard chicken with all week. I think I was pretty successful! Just for your information... I am very obsessed with several things lately.... honey mustard, caesar salad dressing, and all things laughing cow cheese. I try not to eat them everyday, but sometimes, I do. This week, they are taking over my menu :)

Monday

Honey Mustard CrockPot Chicken....(smelllllllls WONDERFUL), sweet potato with a cinnamon laughing cow cream cheese, and a side caesar salad. 

Tuesday

Honey Mustard Chicken Pizza :) There isn't a link for this one, but I am going to use wheat flatbread that I have, a little honey mustard for the sauce, some shredded chicken from Monday, and i'll use some of my laughing cow swiss cheese and shredded mozzarella on top! I'll top it will some crumbled bacon and some fresh basil from my garden! My stomach is really growling now!!!!



Wednesday

Chopped Chicken Caesar Salad... I'll take some spinach, lettuce, boiled egg, bacon, parmesan cheese, and chicken, and chop it up and toss it in caesar dressing. It's my quick and easy go-to meal these days!


Thursday

Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta

I'll change the bowties to wheat pasta, remove the peas, and make some other minor adjustments for this yummmmmmo looking meal!!!



Friday

Club Wraps....to wrap up the end of the chicken! I'm going to put these on the George Forman to make mock paninis to go with my Low Carb Chips and Dip :)



Saturday- eggs, a sandwich, something easy. I have two party invitations, so I'll be out.

Sunday

I have pork in the freezer, so I'm thinking about these little babies.... I just need to go get some peaches.... of course they'd have to be on my george, so they would be as good, but this is just yelling summer sunday lunch!






Please notice that I finally figured out how to embed a pin correctly.... at least I think I did!!! :) 

Crockpot Jambalaya! Sooooo Easy!

This is seriously the easiest meal I have ever cooked! It is also soooooo delicious! 

Ingredients

2 bags of Louisiana Brand Jambalaya Mix

1 bell pepper

1 jalapeno

1/2 onion

Whatever meat you have.... I used left over pork roast, raw chicken breast, and deer sausage.

Stock instead of water (according to the amount needed on package of mix)

Chop up meat, peppers, and onions. Dump everything in the crockpot. Cook for 6-8 hours.

YUMMMMMMMY!

This is one of my Saturday during fall go to meals, but it is good anytime!!! 

Cheat Day Recipes, Pasta Edition... Alfredo, Carbonara

I cannot tell you how many times I get asked for my Alfredo recipe. I posted it on my other blog some time back, but I haven't posted it on this blog or added pictures, so I figured it's about time. I will start by saying that I do not measure anything when I cook this... I just add until it looks right; therefore you may have to adjust the measurements a tad.

Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. of butter

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

pasta of choice

protein of choice

extra parmesan for topping

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add garlic, and cook until soft.

Add cream, and bring to a low boil.

Add cheese, cut heat down, and stir until cheese has melted.

Season with salt and pepper- you do not need a lot of salt, but I add A LOT of pepper!

Add past to saucepan and stir. Top with Grilled Protein and shredded cheese.

Serve with crusty garlic bread and salad :)

This one is relatively new to me. I have come to LOVE this one almost more than alfredo.

Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara

Ingredients:

3 slices of bacon, diced

3 tbsp. butter

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup of cream cheese

splash of cream

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

fresh basil

protein of choice

pasta of choice

In a saucepan, cook bacon and garlic in butter until bacon is cooked.

Add cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Add parmesan and cream. Whisk until you have a sauce consistency. I like mine thick.

Toss in pasta and grilled chicken and shrimp.

Top with fresh basil and parmesan.

Serve with crusty garlic bread and a salad!

Weight Loss Wednesday.... Goals Met, Rewards, and Low Carb Pancakes!

Before I share the recipe for low carb pancakes that I promised in Meal Planning Monday,  I have an announcement to make!!!

Sunday was the end of my 20th week with Xyngular, and I can proudly say that in 20 weeks, I lost 50.4 pounds and a total of 58 inches!!!!! Below you will see the most recent transformation picture... I plan on doing a really good one at 60 pounds lost, as that will be my halfway point.

Let's talk about rewards for a moment. I have a reward system set up for myself because, lets face it, we are encouraged and motivated by rewards!

For -25 lbs, I gave myself a mani/pedi

For -35 lbs, I gave myself a subscription to birchbox.

For -42 lbs (it was a personal goal), I gave myself a diamond candle :)

For -60 lbs, I will give myself a hair makeover ( which is when I will do an official transformation picture)

For -75 lbs, I haven't decided... I will either buy myself something nice or maybe a roadtrip

For -90 lbs, I plan on another diamond candle, mani/pedi, new make-up

For -100 lbs, it will time for new hair again!

For -120 lbs (which is ultimate goal), I plan on buying myself an iPad!!

Do you set goals for yourself? If so, what are some of your ideas?

Low Carb/ Ricotta Pancakes will have to be delayed... decided to eat Zaxby's yesterday (fyi one meal is an entire day's worth of calories) and I wasn't hungry last night, so i skipped dinner.