Low Cal Food with lots of Flavor!

I have been trying recipes this past week from Skinnytastes.com and I have LOVED everything.  Check out Skinnytastes.com for great recipes that are low cal, but aren't lacking delicious taste!  Each meal is about 300 calories each and full of flavor!  

Wordless Wednesday

Demolition of our Back Yard

One of our plans since we bought our house was to rip out the back patio/deck.  The wood was already rotting and starting to fall apart.  Art fixed portions of the deck to make it last for a year.  What a job this has turned out to be!  I am always very thankful every time my FIL volunteers to come over and help us. 

We had to rip out all the deck, pull out concrete pillars, moved tons of dirt and chop roots. We worked hard and fast for 4+ hours.  We were able to accomplish the majority of the demolition; however, there is tons left to do.  I used a jack hammer for the first time.  I also used a saw to cut a root in the ground.  The saw vibrated so hard I thought my head was going to shake off. lol

Here is some of what we did last weekend.  

Homemade Laundry Soap

Last summer I made homemade powder laundry soap.  It didn't turn out very well and I haven't tried it again.  I didn't like it because after mixing & mixing & mixing it still stuck together.  I was able to take chunks off & use it.  I thought it did clean my laundry very well, but I didn't like the fact it stuck together.  I also am not a fan of powder laundry soap.  Every time I buy powder laundry soap I end up with white streaks across my clothes, so I stick to liquid now.

This past weekend my mom called to say she had bought all the stuff to make liquid homemade laundry soap.  I have a recipe saved on my computer to make it for 6+ months, but never got around to doing it.  The thought of grating a whole bar of soap just sounded like too much trouble.  So off to the store I go to spend $7-10 bucks a bottle for soap. 

I needed laundry soap this weekend and I keep forgetting to buy it when I went out.  This was a sign!  It was time to try the soap!  BUT I wasn't going to try to make it until how I heard my moms turned out. Why be the guinea pig when someone else already volunteers. :)

I was VERY pleased to read my moms blog on Sunday to see her soap turned out GREAT!  Not only did she like how it turned out, but she loved how it washed clothes.

Now it was my turn!  I only had a part of a soap bar and I was NOT going to the store to buy one more thing this weekend!  I decided to cut my moms recipe in half & try it out.  It wasn't so bad to grate the bar of soap.  I made enough to fill 3/4 of my laundry soap bottle...PERFECT!  I didn't want any extra that wouldn't fit in my bottle. I haven't tried it yet, but if mom likes it I am sure I will like it!

My mom has a great tutorial along with the recipe on her blog.  Check it out HERE!

Menu Monday

1. Chicken Burgers - I am going to use some ground chicken I bought at Fresh & Easy.  I am going to make them like turkey burgers, but add some shredded zucchini.

2. Vietnamese Shaking Beef - I never made this last week, so it's back on the menu.  Last week was a very hot week and a couple nights we didn't cook.

3. Chicken Fajitas with organic peppers

4. Chicken Skewers with organic Bok Choy

5. Mexican Pizza - I have left over items from last week.  We both really liked these, so I am going to make them again.

We are eating lots of chicken this week. I got a very good deal at Fresh & Easy for fresh chicken breasts.

Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza

4 Whole Wheat Tortilla's

1 Tomato

1/4 cup Refried Beans

1/8 cup Water

1/2 Jalapeno

1 Green Onion

1/2 Small Onion

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Taco Seasoning

1/2 cup Shredded Mexican Cheese

1/2 cup Salsa

1 tsp Oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place 2 tortillas on a cookie sheet & spread 1 tsp oil over tortillas.  Bake tortillas for about 5 minutes.  Place refried beans in a bowl along with water, onion, paprika and taco seasonings. Mix ingredients together.

Chop green onion, tomato and jalapeno in small pieces to sprinkle on top of pizza.  Once tortillas have baked spread 1/2 the refried bean mixture and 1/8 cup salsa on each of the tortilla. Place unused tortillas on top of refriend beans.  Spread salsa, sprinkle tomato, green onion, jalapeno and cheese on top of tortillas.   I also shredded 1 chicken breast and sprinkled it top. 

Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.  If you add chicken you will need to bake for about 15 minutes. I baked mine a little longer, so the cheese was brown. I wanted the pizza a little crispy.

Here are some favorite food items from Pinterest.

 How cute are those salad in a jar ideas? 

I want this!!!!

I want this!!!! Check out the blog Lovelace File for the instructions to make this great laundry basket sorter.  This is going to be added to the honey do list! 

Korean BBQ

While I was in LA one of my employees & husband took me to Korean BBQ.  Do you see a theme here where there is lots of food during my LA trips.  Korean BBQ is A-MAZING!!!!  I tried some different foods for the first time. Some items I never thought I would eat.....I will go into that a little further down.

Wordless Wednesday

Amber Graduated!!!!!

Last Friday Amber graduated from college!  Art & I am so proud of her!!!!! 

The college went out of order from their schedule when they started handing out the diploma's.  I was so irritated because I didn't get a good picture of her walking across the platform. 

 Amber striking a pose

Amber & her friends

Menu Monday

It's time to make a menu, buy all the ingredients & cook for the week!  I recently discovered a new blog http://www.skinnytaste.com/.  This blog is FABULOUS for low cal & diety type food; however, the food tastes AMAZING!  I am trying a bunch of new recipes this week from the blog. 

1. Shepherds Pie - I am trying skinnytaste.com recipe in place of my own.  I am going to see if the low cal version is just as yummy as mine. One of Art's favorite meals is my shepherds pie.  Hopefully this one will not disappoint.

2. Asian Peanut Chicken Noodles - another from skinnytaste.com.  Trader Joe has a very similar item in their to go section, but it was over 500 calories for a half of serving.

3. Mexican Pizza - A knock off of Taco Bell Mexican Pizza.  I am going to add a little shredded chicken to the top layer.

4. Brussel Sprouts & Vietnamese Shaking Beef

I am also trying out a new breakfast recipe along with 3 new lunch recipes.  Trying to mix it up, so I stay focused on counting calories.  The majority of my grocery shopping this week was veggies. If the lunch items turn out fabulous I will post the recipes.

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Happy Father's Day to the World's Greatest Fausha!!!!!  

I was raised in a very loving and wonderful home by two wonderful parents.  My dad is a faithfal man who has stayed consistent over the last 30+ years.  My parents have gone through a lot of rough time in their life.  I never questions if dad would stay consistent in his life & stop trusting God.  Sometime during every day you will find my dad with his Bible in his lap, always attends churchs and upholds a Christian testimony.  You don't ever have to wonder what dad is going to do because he is going to do what is right and only what is right. He doesn't care if it offends someone because his testimony is more important than what others think of him.

There are a few things my dad taught me that have stuck with me through the years.  Growing up my dad taught us how important it is to keep our names clean.  Once you have a bad reputation where people don't trust you or think poorly of you it is very hard to get it changed. 

Another thing he taught us was to be hard workers. I HATED living on the farm while I was growing up.  He let me pick as the oldest child what time of day I wanted to feed the calves each day.  I would have to go to the barn & feed 5-10 calves bottles every day.  I decided to go with the morning shift, so I could go to town with mom in the afternoon.  The calves had to be fed while dad milked the cows.  I would try every trick in the book to get out of feeding those calves.  Dad let it slide a couple of times in the beginning.  He would call the house later on in the morning to let me know the calves were still waiting & the milk was sitting in the barn to feed the calves.  Or he would come to the house, pull me out of bed and make me go to the barn.  Oh I would get so mad.  Stomp down to the barn to feed those stupid calves! He would say he was teaching me character, so one day I would get up & go to work.  Well I thought that was also stupid because who doesn't go to work? I would also be getting paid to go to work.  Growing up on the farm was the best thing!  I learned how to work hard, get a job done, character, and it kept me out of trouble. I wish I could send some adults to farm bootcamp to learn how to work!

We were taught to be honest, do what was right, trust in God, the importance of family and a good sense of humor.  My dad was the leader of our home, but also our protector.  I thought all kids were raised like me and felt safe, loved and protected by their dads.  Unfortanately as an adult you learn differently. 

One of my favorite memories was the games my dad would play with us.  These games could ONLY be played when mom was not home because of the noise!  One was carnival where he would be all types of carnival rides. We would ride on his back like a roller coaster & he would crawl on the couch, down the hallway, up on beds and all over the house. He would come up with a ferris wheel, pick us up & around in a circle we would go.  He would also set up carnival games for us to play.

The second game was all our time favorite BEAR!  We tried to play this one time when mom was home because she kept asking what is this bear game.  Once and only once was it played when mom was home because it was just tooo loud!  Dad was the bear.  Billy & I were the hunters. Billy had these toy shot guns that we could use.  This is the ONLY time we could point the guns at a person because dad was actually a bear.  Billy & I would go searching through the house looking for the bear.  In order to stay safe we would have to get back to the couch in the livingroom before the bear got us.  You had to be quick.  If you shot the bear you won; however, the bear could get wounded and come after you.  Off we would go searching for the bear....out from the darkness the bear would ROAR!  Off we would go running down the hall screaming at the top of our lungs hurry hurry get to the couch before the bear gets you.  The bear couldn't chase you on 2 legs only on 4 legs. Sometimes we made it sometimes we didn't.  If one of the hunters went down the other hunter would have to rescue them.  We were sure this bear was real while it was coming after us.

Along came Lacey....Lacey did not find this game entertaining.  We would have to leave her on the couch as a toddler, while we went hunting for the bear. When she would hear or see the bear she would start crying hysterically.  I can still picture her little face red from screaming with tears running down her face.  One of us would have to go calm her down while the other hunted.  Or we would come screaming to the couch & there she would be crying.  We tried to explain the importance of both of us hunting, but there is no explaining to a 2 yr old. Finally when I was almost a teenager it got to the point she would play the game, but by that point I was getting too old.

Beside the wonderful father I was given stood a mother that was equally as wonderful.  It is hard not to praise one without praising the other.  It takes two people to do an amazing job.  Two people who stick by the other and agree on how to raise a family a specific way.  My parents decided how to raise a family & stood firm in their beliefs. 

April 08 GTG

While I was in LA I was able to spend time with my bestie Krystal and Brittany came to town from Kentucky.  It was sooo nice to meet her.  We had a wonderful time together.  We went to Orange, Laguna Beach, and SPRINKLES!!!!! My favorite cupcake place ever!

Above: Enjoying gelato

Below: Enjoying breakfast at Bruxie - OMG they have the BEST waffle sandwiches!!!!  I can't wait to go back to Orange & get a Bruxie sandwich!

Last week Marissa was in San Francisco for a work meeting and we were able to meet.  It was soooo nice to finally meet her.  We talked & talked.  She is such a sweet & fun A08er!

It is so nice to meet A08ers in person and realize they are just as wonderful in person.  We have been talking for the past 4+ yrs as we planned our weddings, bought homes, started families etc. 

Re-Dye Denim Skirt

I have a favorite jean skirt that is super faded.  I bought the skirt at Old Navy about 6 or 7 years ago.  The skirt is still in great shape except the color is extremely faded.  I decided I was going to try to dye the skirt.  It was at the point I wasn't going to be wearing the skirt anymore, so what did I have to lose?  After the last dye flop I should have been a little more scared, but I forged ahead!

I followed this blog on how she dyed a denim skirt.

Homemade Stir Fry

Every two weeks we have an organic box of vegetables/fruit delivered to our home.  The vegetables/fruit are  from local farm.  It is exciting to get a box of mixed veggies & fruit.  

Wordless Wednesday!

DIY JCrew Tshirt Flop

I saw the JCrew tshirt below on Pinterest and wanted it!!! However the tshirt is $70+ bucks.  Ummm I am not paying $70 for a tshirt.  I thought I would try to make one myself....this DIY turned into a flop. :( 

Menu Monday

I have been traveling and working tons of hours lately.  I have done minimal cooking in the past couple weeks.  I am looking forward to doing some cooking this week. 

1. Chicken & Waffles - I am going to cheat & bake some chicken I bought at the store. BUT I am going to make homemade waffles. I am going to use Paula Deen's waffle recipe.  Hopefully it is delish!

2. Red Snapper Fish & veggies - Art bought some red snapper over the weekend. 

3. Chicken Parmesan Crescents - I found the recipe on Plain Chicken blog.

4. Beef Fajitas - all organic veggies from our food box

5. Chicken, pineapple & steam rice - I LOVE grilling chicken & pineapple on the grill.  The combination of the 2 together is just so delish!  I haven't made this in a couple years.  It is super easy, but super tasty!

What is on your menu for this week?

FOOOOOOOOD TRUCKS!

I spent a week in LA for work and then I stayed for the weekend.  Friday night Krystal, Eric and I headed out to Venice for a food truck extravaganza!  There were food trucks for as far as you could see.  Some of the trucks had lines super long and others had no line. The long lines were the ones you knew you needed to try! 

Kogi's was our first stop.  Kogi's has the most amazing Korean BBQ!  I had the pork sliders and we shared a Blackjack Quesadilla.

While we were waiting in line we kept seeing people with these spiral potatoes on a stick.  They looked super fun and we wanted to try them. Krystal & I shared a truffel oil potato.  It was good...but just a spiral french fry.

I can't wait for my next trip to LA and to try out more food trucks.  I love Kogi's so much that I only want to eat more of their yummy goodness!

Fashion Tips from Nanny

My Nanny has always been very proper when it comes to what clothes she wears.  She has always been very aware of styles, seasons and etiquette.  Nanny will tell you that you can never have too many pairs of navy or black shoes.  Navy & black suits are a must have for every ward rob.  I asked my Nanny to email me some of her fashion tips. I thought it would be fun to start sharing her tips. Below is a portion of an email she sent me a couple months back.

Wreath Ideas

I recently became an addict of Pinterest.  Just what I needed another website to suck me in for hours on end.  I found some cute wreath ideas.  I thought I would share them with you. 

Wordless Wednesday

Fashion

I am becoming an addict on Pinterest.....I just find so many great ideas.  I pinned these cute outfits.  II love wearing cardigans & tanks.  I love how these are mixed together.  Love the colors!

STRETCH!

Sammy laid on his back when I got home yesterday and wanted his belly scratched. He loves to stretch out while laying on his back.

A few hours later he rolled over & went to sleep like below.  He cracks me up when he sleeps on his back.  He looks soooo uncomfortable!