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.

Low Carb Pancakes

2 posts in 1 day?!? whaaaaat!! Actually, this one belongs with the other one, but I couldn't get it all out at one time, so here we go with post 2 for the day! :)

Decided to make waffles instead of pancakes because I have yet to use the waffle maker I got for Christmas that mom, Spenser, and Michael fought for during Black Friday! However.... I think these work better in pancake form. I did alter the recipe to what I thought would give me really good waffles, but really there were just pancakes in waffle shapes.

This isn't my recipe entirely. A girl doing xyngular with me posted it in our recipe group on My Fitness Pal. She found the recipe in a really old cookbook.... see cookbooks are still gems :)

Low Carb Ricotta Pancakes

4 eggs 
1 cup ricotta cheese 
1/2 vanilla flavored whey protein powder
1 teaspoon baking powder 

optional

blueberries

bananas

walnute or pecans

chocolate chips

Spray griddle with non-stick cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs , butter, and ricotta until smooth. Whisk in the protein powder, baking powder. Mix until well combined. 

Drop batter onto the griddle... amount depending on your preference of size. Flip pancake when it starts bubbling.

Serve with real butter, sugar-free syrup or jelly, or Splenda and cinnamon.

Nutrion Facts (no options added or topping) 

Serving: 1 waffle

Calories: 182

Fat: 13 g

Sodium: 87 mg

Carbs: 2.8 g

Fiber: 0

Sugar: .6 g

Protein: 14 g

***I use full fat everything because I am on a low carb diet, and low fat means high sugar and carb count.
****Nutrional Facts are based on the brands of ingredients I used. I sit in the store and read every label to get the best facts. That may not be the case for you.

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers

P.S. On the blog tomorrow-------- CHEAT Day (Pasta Edition)

Teacher Tuesday... Keyboarding Edition

It's summer...Hallelujah!

That means, curriculum planning, poster making, theme developing, and a lot of pinterest professional development. As I mentioned last week, I am going with a pirate theme this year. Thanks to oriental trading, my wall display has been purchased along with lots of incentives. Walmart had a bunch of pirate party decor on a super sale, so I racked up!! 

Today, I am going to focus on second grade. Next year, I plan on taking on a huge task...teaching the second grade students (and probably 3rd and 4th) how to type. Here are some nifty things I've found to help me conquer this task.

I plan to start off with a lesson from Doreen Cronin and the Cows... I am a librarian, so I feel like I have to integrate literacy :)

Then I am going to make one of these for each student. They will keep it in their library folder. We will color the keys according to which finger you use to hit that key. Before we actually move to a computer, we will use this for a month or so to practice locating the keys on the keyboard.

Then at some point, after we know the keyboard, we will use some type of program like this one to begin keyboarding! I just love this particular program!!!

I would love to make this on a big wall in my library; however, I do not have anywhere to actually put this .... I am still thinking about this! 

If you have any ideas for teaching second grade students how to type, I am all ears!

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers



P.S. This is my first time to figure out how to embed the pinterest widgets.... so be patient please!

Chips and Dip (low carb style)

Part of my Xyngular diet is eating low carb. I usually drink a protein shake for breakfast, a 500-600 calorie meal for lunch, and endless protein and green veggies for dinner. On shake days (when I drink 3 shakes instead of meals), I get two 6 oz. protein snacks. I always struggle with snacks because I get tired of eggs, cheese, nuts, and chicken. There are also days when I desperately want a snack like chips and dip, but that's obviously not a good protein snack. Therefore, it was time to find an alternative!

Today's Snack is...... Pepperoni Chips with Greek Yogurt Ranch Dip

Ingredients

Pepperoni Slices (I use Turkey)

Greek Yogurt

Ranch Season Mix

Chips

line a baking sheet with aluminum foil

lay out pepperonis on the sheet 

Bake on 425 for 10 minutes

pat pepperonis to remove excess fat

Dip 

Mix greek yogurt with a ranch season packet

*i normally just make enough for one serving, so i sprinkle the season mix until it has the taste I want

Nutrition Facts (for 20 chips and 1 oz of dip)

Calories.....82

Fat.... 4G

Sodium... 726MG

Carbs... 4G

Fiber... 1G

Sugar... 2G

Protein... 9G

Meal Planning Monday

Monday- Last day of the 8 day challenge, so today is a shake day!

Shake Recipe for the day (PB&J shake)

8 oz. almond milk

1 scoop of lean

1 oz. global superblend fruit juice

1 tbsp. PB2

Tuesday- Breakfast for dinner

Low carb/ Protein waffles (recipe will be on weight loss wednesday)

Scrambled Eggs

Breakfast Sausage

Wednesday- Leftover chili with Quinoa from Sunday

Thursday- BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and Brussel Sprout Skillet from Words & Whisks Blog... I found this recipe under the Low Carb section on The Tasty Kitchen Blog!! I'm pretty excited about this recipe. I recently tried brussel sprouts and the aren't that bad... this should make them AMAZING!!

Friday- Either Leftover chili or Brussel Sprout Skillet

Saturday- Paleo Tilapia from last week because I never cooked it, or hibachi with the family for my dad's birthday/father's day!

Sunday- Crock Pot Honey Mustard Whole Chicken

I am seriously sooooooooo excited about this! I am sooooo obsessed with honey mustard. I bought a whole chicken a few weeks ago, and it's been in my freezer. I plan on eating this for Sunday lunch with  a strawberry spinach salad and some corn!! Then, I plan on using the leftover chicken during the week for salads, chicken pizza, a maybe a past dish! 

Sweet Saturday.... Lemony Goodness

I have made a lot of "sweets" prior to the weight loss journey....which probably explains the need for a weight loss journey.... Anyways, for the next few weeks, at least, I am going to share one of these sweets each Saturday, along with a link to some "sweets" I want to try from pinterest on cheat days!!

Lemon Blueberry Cake

My friend Brooke celebrated her birthday last week, so I knew I was going to be making her a cake! As far as cakes and food in general go, we pretty much have the same tastes. I knew I really wanted a good lemon dessert, and I was tight on money, so I wanted to use things I had at the house. I knew she would approve of lemon as well, so when I found a lemon cake mix in the pantry, I was excited! I wanted to do more than just make a lemon box cake, so I jazzed it up a little.

So here it is... Lemon Cake with Blueberry filling and a lemon buttercream!!!!

Ingredients

Lemon Cake Mix (and whatever it calls for)

Lemon Zest... about 3 lemons 

juice of the lemons from above

1 cup of blueberries, plus some for garnish

6 cups of powder sugar

1 stick of butter

a few tbsp. of heavy cream

Cake

For the cake, I baked it according to the box. I added some lemon zest to the batter, and that is it.

Filling

In a saucepan, I combined blueberries, 1 cup of powder sugar, juice of one lemon.

Let it cook until you have a light boil.

Remove from burner and cool.

You can either mash the blueberries if you want it chunky or puree it in a blender like I did. I added more powder sugar to thicken it a little more. 

Icing

In a mixer, beat butter and slowly add remaining powder sugar and lemon juice from remaining lemons. 

After you've added all of the sugar, gradually add heavy cream until you get the consistency you want. Stir in remaining lemon zest.

Assembly

Place one cake on plate. 

Top with blueberry filling.

Place second cake on top.

Ice the cake with the buttercream.

Decorate... I used a little fresh mint and blueberries.

Enjoy! 

Pinterest Lemon Goodness on my "to make list."

Starkbucks Lemon Loaf Copycat

Hellloooooo! I love this cake! Heck Yes for a copycat!!!!

and then there was a muddy buddy recipe.... oh me, oh my....

Lemon Muddy Buddies

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers

Weight Loss Wednesday :)

I feel like I am getting good at coming up with these little slogans for each day! Of course, I live by the mantra that teachers beg, borrow, and steal, so I suppose I do that a lot in all aspects of life ;)

Anyways, today is WEIGHT LOSS WEDNESDAY! Each Wednesday, I plan to share something about my weight loss journey whether it be a picture, a recipe, a sales pitch, or a shout out to some one else on this crazy journey with me.

Today, I am going to give a little overview of my journey to this point.

On January 21, 2013, a little red box by the name of IGNITE entered my life. Ignite is program powered by Xyngular! If you click on the word Xyngular, it will bring you the website to check it out!!! Since January 21, 2013, I have lost 47.6 lbs! I understand that Xyngular isn't for everyone, and I am not trying to convince you that it's the best, but it has worked for me and my family! I drink some protein shakes, I take supplements, I count calories, I live a low carb lifestyle, I read boxes religiously, and I exercise lightly. Those things may not be for you, but I can tell you this.... if you aren't willing to change your lifestyle, you're not going to see results. I am not trying to sell you this, but if you are interested in what I am doing, I would love to answer questions and talk more about Xyngular with you! I can sell the products! The videos on the website linked above really explain the products! Everyone should at least check them out just to see what it is that has changed my life!!!

While I am thrilled to have lost 47.6 lbs, I have a long ways to go. This is why I am putting it out here. If everyone knows my business, then maybe I will keep going as planned!! My next goal is 60 lbs, but I will probably celebrate when I hit -50 just because that seems so surreal!!!

I will leave everyone with my first transformation picture!

The left side was taken last summer, and I probably weight 5-10 lbs less than I did when I started Xyngular. The picture on the right was taken in April when I had lost 40 lbs.  

If you're on a weight loss journey, please share your story with me! Let's keep each other encouraged!

Find me on My Fitness Pal at amaree5595 :)

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers :)

Teacher Tuesday :)

Of course, if I am going to get back into blogging, I am going to need a theme each day! Most of what I am up to is teacher stuff, so let's geaux Teacher Tuesday! 

Anyone else super excited to be out for summer, yet spending all of their time putting a plan together for next year?! I know I am!!!

I'm not in the classroom anymore, but I may as well be. I still teach a reading lesson based on the common core curriculum units established by our district to each grade Pre-K- 8th. I went ahead last week and made a curriculum map and lessons plans for all grades for the first 9 weeks of school!!! I am determined to be super prepared this year! 

In library news, I have decided on an AR theme thanks to this little boy : )

The theme is..... PIRATES!

At BEEMS, we are HOOKED on READING! (with Captain Hook)

The AR slogan is "Racing for the Treasure." On the display wall, we will have a beach mural with "Treasure Island" to the right. Each class will get a pirate ship. For each person that meets their goal, their pirate ship moves closer to Treasure Island.

I am using the Walt Disney quote, "There is more treasure in books than in all of the loot on Treasure Island" to gear the theme more towards reading. It's hard to pick themes that a kindergarten student and an 8th grade student will enjoy, but I think this one appeases to all ages. WIth Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Pirates of the Caribbean, I am hoping this will be a success.

I have retired all of the Dr. Seuss stuff...at least until March...bring on the pirates! 

Here are a few on my pinterest pins for the library (sorry- cannot get the link to work.... grrr. Find the My Pirate Classroom board on my pinterest to find links for these fabulous ideas that I plan to steal from someone :))

I'll do something like this for the door....

Reading Log for K- 2...

My two goals for the upcoming year are......................

#1. Have entire classes meet goals each 9 weeks

#2. Focus on K-2 reading fluently and with comprehension, and meeting their goals.

More to come in the following weeks....

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers : )

Meal Planning Monday... edition #1 for me :)

This will probably be a little different than most MPMs. I started a program called Xyngular on January 21st. Since then, I've lost 46 lbs. Part of the program is an 8 day detox. I do them every so often, and today I started my 3rd one. 

Day 1- Monday :)

Breakfast 

 Lean Protein Shake with Almond Milk

Morning Snack

- 4 oz Greek Yogurt with a little xypstick (xyngular product) mixed in

Lunch

Lean Butter Finger Protein Shake

-1 scoop of Lean Protein Powder

- 8 oz. of almond milk

-1 tbsp sugar free butterscotch pudding mix

-1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

-1 tsp PB2

Afternoon Snack

-4 oz Grilled Flank Steak

-2 oz. Fresh Mozzerella

- 1 tbsp Fresh Pesto from pinterest pictured below

Dinner

Lean Protein Shake with Almond Milk

Day 2- Tuesday :)

Breakfast 

 Lean Protein Coffee Shake

-6 oz. community coffee- chilled

- 2 oz. almond milk

-1 scoop lean

- 1 scoop of ice

blend and enjoy!

Morning Snack

- 4 oz Greek Yogurt with a little xypstick (xyngular product) mixed in

Lunch

Lean Butter Finger Protein Shake

Afternoon Snack

-4 oz Grilled Flank Steak

-2 oz. Fresh Mozzerella

- 1 tbsp Fresh Pesto from pinterest

Dinner

Lean Protein Shake with Almond Milk

Day 3- Wednesday :)

Breakfast 

 Lean Protein Coffee Shake

Lunch

Turkey Sandwich on wheat with pepperjack cheese stick

Dinner

Grilled Flank Steak- leftover from snacks all week

Grilled Pesto Shrimp from pinterest

Day 4- Thursday :)

Breakfast 

 Lean Protein Coffee Shake

Morning Snack

- 4 oz Greek Yogurt with a little xypstick (xyngular product) mixed in

Lunch

Lean Butter Finger Protein Shake

Afternoon Snack

- 2 hard boiled eggs

- 2 snack size slim jims

- 1 oz. cashews

Dinner

Lean Protein Shake with Almond Milk

Day 5- Friday :)

Breakfast 

 Lean Protein Coffee Shake

Lunch

Turkey sandwich on wheat with a pepperjack cheese stick

Dinner

Bacon Wrapped Pork Filet 

Day 6- Saturday :)

Breakfast 

 Lean Protein Coffee Shake

Morning Snack

- 4 oz Greek Yogurt with a little xypstick (xyngular product) mixed in

Lunch

Lean Butter Finger Protein Shake

Afternoon Snack

Paleo Tilapia

Dinner

Lean Protein Shake with Almond Milk

Day 7- Sunday :)

Breakfast 

 Lean Protein Coffee Shake

Lunch

Beef and Bean Chili served over quinoa

Dinner

Paleo Tilapia and Shrimp

Giving this a try again...

I decided I'm going to get back into the blogging world! I love reading Emily Babb's blog about meal planning mondays, pinterest ideas, and what not, and I need to figure out how to be held accountable for meal planning to save money!!! So here we go AGAIN!