Healthy-ish Meals On A Budget; Dinner

This is this weeks final addition in the “Healthy-ish Meals On A Budget” series, seeing as this is the final meal of the night, it’s only fitting. The next post in this series that’ll follow is my grocery list and where we landed in our budget for all 21 meals that have been posted! I hope you enjoy!

1. Parmesan Chicken, Italian Roasted Potatoes, & Steamed Broccoli

To began, I will post the link for the chicken and the potatoes, but in true fashion here are my adjustments to the recipe. I stumbled upon this recipe for the first time last month, and that night I looked in my fridge and realized I didn’t have parmesan. So to this day, I don’t add parmesan. I make this recipe two different ways. The first was is with vegenaise, Mrs.Dash garlic and herb seasoning in the mixture, and I add a little bit of bread crumbs into the mixture. The second I make with mayo, the same garlic and herb seasoning, and bread crumbs. I do season the chicken prior to adding the mixture. I follow the cooking instructions in that recipe. The Italian roasted potatoes I season a little differently. I put them in a bowl with a little bit of olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper, and some dried oregano. Then cook as the recipe below instructs. I then use frozen steamed broccoli.

Check out the recipe! Click here ->     

Check out the recipe! Click here ->      

2. Herb Chicken, Quinoa, Garlic Bread, & A Veggie

I’d doctor up the seasoning of the herb chicken based on what was available in my kitchen. I follow the instructions on the back on the bag of quinoa, I add some minced garlic clove. At the beginning of the week I purchase one package of garlic bread (the loaf kind) and divide it between two dinners. As per usual I will also serve a steamed veggie.

Check out the recipe! Click here ->      

3. Cilantro Lime Chicken, Rice, & A Veggie

The link to the chicken is here. I’ll make the rice as the package instructs, I’ll add cumin, a little salt, and pepper. Then a steamed veggie. The reason I choose steamed veggie, is because a bag that’ll feed us all our allotment of veggies for the night, is at the store for $1, I usually pic up the store brand. Fun-ish fact about frozen veggies; they are taken at optimum readiness, and instantly frozen.

Check out the recipe! Click here->      

4. Italian night; Spinach Stuffed Chicken, pasta, garlic bread, artichoke hearts, and a veggie

Like every recipe, adjust to what you have available. This would be the night I would use the other half of the garlic bread, serve some jarred artichoke hearts, and a steamed veggie.

Check out the recipe! Click here ->      

5. Gourmet Mac & Cheese

Some members of my household don’t consume bacon, so I would make or serve some sort of chips, and a black bean dip. The complete meal would be the gourmet Mac and cheese, some sort of chip or food delivery mechanism for the black bean dip to get from the plate to your mouth.

Check out the recipe! Click here ->    

Check out the recipe! Click here ->     

6. Ramen w/hard boiled eggs

I couldn’t site a recipe that matched what I had in mind. Ramen noodles, $1.94 for a 12 pack. Soy sauce. Canned corn. If you can get it, some green onion. Served with hard boiled eggs. If you are following my breakfast, lunch, and dinner grocery list for the week, you’ll already have flax seeds to add on top for some extra nutrients.

7. Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

I couldn’t seem to sight a recipe for this meal either. I use canned green Chile enchiladas sauce, corn tortillas, I divide one large can of sauce between mixing the chicken and topping the enchiladas once they are in the pan, add some cheese and voila!

This brings us to the end of our time together. We’ve talked about breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 21 meals that work for me and my family. I now ask you to join me to see the shopping list for all these items. That post will be up shortly. I look forward to hearing how you liked this healthy-ish meal plan.

P.S you’ll be alright

My Sons Fought Over An Imaginary Toy

“Logic will get you from A-Z; imagination will take you everywhere.”- Albert Einstein

From a young age my sons were extremely different from each other. The oldest needed constant attention, dependent, and didn’t seem to have much of an imagination. While my second child, had a vivid imagination, this resulted in his possession of a collection of imaginary toys.

The perks of a child having imaginary toys, they were free, space saving, and they shouldn’t have been much arguing in regards to sharing said toys. Well, my sons found a way to show me that I misunderstood the rules of imaginary toys.

One day, my second son was occupying himself with his imaginary toys and began to fall into a fit. Rushing over to see what the arguing and crying was about I was shocked by what was unfolding.

Location: Living Room

Culprit: Oldest son

Victim? The younger one

Here is how the story goes;

Youngest son: “He took my toy!”

Me: (looking absolutely lost at what is unfolding before me) “What toy?”

I surveyed the situation, my oldest son didn’t have a toy in his hands, but was fiddling his hands around some air. I jumped to the conclusion (my suspicions were later confirmed) my oldest took his imaginary toy! They continued to argue about the stolen toy, and demanded it be returned. Which I then in turn made him return the imaginary toy. Oh, the joys and sanity of motherhood.

Picture what this would look like; fighting over a toy that doesn’t exist, and me demanding that toy be returned.

While I hoped this would insight some laughter, what this taught me was a lesson about my kids. A child’s imagination is something that may be fed and nurtured to flourish, that day I noticed something was missing; my eldest’s imagination. What he discovered that day was one more way to bug his brother, and it worked!

Welcome to this crazy life.

P.S you’ll be alright

 

My Breaking Point; Motherhood

“I had no idea it would be this much. I had no idea I could handle it. I had no idea how beautiful it all actually is.” – Tyler Knott Gregson

Along the way there have undeniably been multiple “breaking points”. Kids are tough! Child rearing is tough, life is stressful, but I can say I have successfully avoided being admitted to the loony bin, although there were times I thought I was living in one.  I think it is time to take you down memory lane.

My life in 1991 was all consumed by a needy toddler, and an ever growing baby in my belly. My second son was soon born, and everything was so different the second go around. The first son, was connected to me, literally. Needed to be carried constantly, I realized it was my fault. He pulled at my heart every time he cried. Yet the sound that echoes on in my heart is the sound of the laughter. Thereafter his laughter ceased, his baby brother arrived, the honest truth is he never has been good at sharing. It takes a village to raise a child, and distance separated me from my village.  Many of the issues that were so traumatic due to being new at motherhood was actually not new to so many, but my village was far and there was no internet at that time. We quite literally now live in a world wide village of advice givers thanks to technology. My second son was the happiest content baby I’d ever met. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a ongoing challenge every day.

I believe the year was 1998, its all a little fuzzy, from loss of brain cells due to lack of sleep. If the two monsters weren’t enough, I mean, kept my hands full, then came the third, she was the princess. She was completely opposite of the rug rats. While there are so many beautiful memories, the story that comes to mind is one from when she was two years old. Two words, projectile vomit. What was a seemingly normal day was suddenly interrupted by an unexpected visitor, my two year old had a virus. Which made its debut on my face, my bed, and in my nightmares for a while longer.

I use to utter the words, “I should have written a book”, when all the memories were fresh and plentiful. Life never slowed down. Before I could catch my breath we had teenagers. I’ll be the first to say I should have sent my teenagers away to reformatory, until they came back nicer humans, ready to be introduced into society. The truth of the matter is that is what parents are for. We are there to support our children, believe in them, but most importantly prepare them for the world with love and patience. It is our duty to prepare them for the world, because if we don’t, the world will beat and bruise them beyond what is necessary.

What was my breaking point with each child? They were all similar, but started with my oldest, he believed he was an only child, I deep down believe he still does. There were so many adventures and mountains to conquer. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a heart attack with us everywhere we went. I love my children, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything, except maybe some peace and quite. While this blog post was riddled with what was meant to cause a giggle or two, motherhood is beautiful. If you are living a similar tale to the one I told you of, you may find comfort that you’ll soon get some sleep. “Soon” is relative to perspective, “Soon” may be in five more years. Motherhood will bring you to a breaking point more times than you can count, but it is worth it every step of the way.

I hope you know you are not alone.

P.S You’ll be alright

Mommy Time

“Remember that children, marriages, and gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr

I may not be very good at this blogging life. Instead of giving advice, I like to take the non-confrontational route. H. Jackson Brown Jr spoke words that are timeless. “Remember that children, marriages, and gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” Why is that so? When you neglect any of those facets it’ll show sooner or later, and with a devastating final product.

How to do it all? Do you have to be superwoman to get everything done in a day? Or possibly more hours in a day?

Personally I don’t believe more hours in our day would solve the problem at all. We would find a hundred more tasks to do, and pile them on by the dozen. So what is the solution? I don’t have one. I think that there are time saving solutions, and many tactics written by wonderful authors, but none of them were my solution. I think as humans we are created to adapt, fight, and conquer. Here is why, if you are drowning, your bodies natural instinct is to fight, putting all your strength into fighting that tide, the fight to keep breathing. I think when maternal instincts kicks in that natural instinct is just amplified to the moon, in retrospect of when things need to be done, or cared for.

Should you have priorities? OF COURSE! But I am not the one to tell you what they should be. I think you have to identify within yourself whats important, and what is absent or being deprived of in your life. If it is doing your hair or makeup in the morning before your day starts, but you don’t have the time because of your young children? Depending on the age of your children, and or the time you went to sleep, waking up 10 minutes earlier may just do the trick. The internet has a plethora of “5 minute make up” tutorials to follow. Maybe it is to have a meal with your significant other without the children, waking up early to maybe have a cup of coffee before work. While these aren’t priorities to most people, maybe they would make the difference between a good day, and a great day. My place of refuge/hiding from the children was in the restroom, the downside was we only had one restroom, I couldn’t hideout for long. To my surprise, these getaways never worked, but they were worth a try.

Whether your priorities lists kids, spouse, work, self, or any other mixture or concoction. A vital truth is your kids, marriage, and garden may suffer, but SO WILL YOU without the proper care. We have the obligation to provide for our family, and that does mean working, so I am not sitting in my entitled seat telling you one responsibility is more important than the other, and you should neglect everything and simply care for yourself, but I think that stepping back may help to shed some light on a few things.

As a family unit (again, varies by age of children) find even 10 minutes to spare with each other, or away from each other. Time will fly by and before you know it, your babies are no longer babies, and you’ll have to think about how you spent your time. This may have not been the most informative article you read this year, but I hope it shared a thing or two about time. Time is one of our most precious commodities, all the money in the world cannot buy you more of it.

Find something beautiful in your day, and take some time to reflect on it.

P.S You’ll be alright