Home cooking!

I have been trying really hard to stick to meal planning and keeping to a strict grocery budget.  I have been shopping at ALDI lately with surprising results.  We have really liked almost everything we have eaten!!!  I found a blog with ALDI meal plans and shopping lists and I have been tweaking those recipes to better suit our family! I also love trying new recipes from Pinterest.   I have been asked to share so I will start with a few recipes here and try to update with our favorite ones!

Tortellini Soup (Served with Tastefully Simple Salted Pretzel Rolls and homemade cinnamon applesauce) adapted from:
 ( http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/tortellini-soup/e2a8d3ac-207d-4617-b20c-df3517f0aa8a)

Ingredients

3

tablespoons butter or margarine 

2

garlic cloves, finely chopped

2

medium celery stalks, chopped (1 cup)

1

medium carrot, chopped (1/2 cup)

2        Cartons (32 oz each)  chicken broth (8 cups)

4

cups water

2

packages refrigerated  cheese-filled tortellini

2

 1/2

teaspoon pepper

Pinch of Basil

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

• 1Melt butter in 6-quart Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Cover and cook garlic, celery, carrot in butter 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• 2Stir in broth and water. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding tortellini in the last 2-3 minutes until tortellini are tender.
• 3Stir in Basil, pepper. Cover and simmer 1 minutes. Top each serving with cheese.

Mexican Style Stuffed Peppers: adapted from

http://www.wishesdocometru.com/2014/03/stuffed-green-peppers.html

Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Mama Casita Salsa

9 multi colored  peppers

Mama Casita taco seasoning

1/2 cup Happy Farms cheddar cheese (leave off for healthier choice)

2 cups cooked mexican style rice ( I used the microwaveable pouches)

1 bag frozen corn

2 lb Ground Beef

Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Cook rice as it says on package

2. Cook corn as it says on the bag.

3. Dice one pepper

4. Brown the ground meat, add diced pepper and cook for 5 minutes.  Add taco seasoning and 2/3 cup of water.  Reduce heat and let simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.  Add Corn, Rice, and salsa and let simmer

5. Slice the top of the peppers off. 

6. Fill peppers with rice and meat mix. Top with cheese

7. Bake in 370 oven for 30 minutes or until peppers are soft and cheese is melted and browned

****Both of these recipes made excellent leftovers for lunch the next day!!!   I had extra pepper filling that I filled tortilla shells with and made delicious burritos with!!!******

CH-CH-CH- Changes

I need to make some major changes in the new year!  I have let myself become stagnant in almost every aspect of my life.  I spend most of my days in sweats, sitting on the couch, watching Disney Jr and Paw Patrol.  I need to make some changes.  Not only for me, but for my family as well.  I am setting some pretty big goals, not only for myself, but for my family as well.  Some are personal change, some are physical, and some are spiritual.  Change is in the air!

Physical:
 We need to be healthier as a family.  Exercise, fresh air, better food.  I need to lose weight.  I am 173 pounds.  Instead of losing 10 pounds in November and December, I gained 8.  I am only 6 pounds lighter than the day I gave birth over a year ago and 12 pounds over my pre pregnancy weight.  I feel like a sloth.  I thought I was ok at this size (size 12) but I just don't look healthy.  I am definitely not happy with myself.  So I am going to start doing yoga to strengthen my body and I am going to start running again.

My Goals for 2015

• Get down to 145 pounds.  
• Eat a healthier balanced diet
• Spend more time outside with the kids
• Encourage more physical activities for the kids
• Run a 5K this Spring- as in run the entire thing!
• Run a 10K this summer- as in run the entire thing!
• Run 2 half marathons- October and November- as in run the entire thing! 
• Encourage Travis to improve his physical health as well
• Read 52 books this year.  I have already put a list together.  Less time on the computer, more time reading
• Keep the house clean and organized-  my biggest struggle
• purge, purge, purge!!!
• Get out of debt.  All of our debt will be payed off in less than 2 years if we keep to the budget I have created
• Do more as a family.  More family activities!
• Communicate better, with everyone in my lives.  I want to stop picking fights over little things and also stand up for myself.  I don't always have to be a peacekeeper! 
• Find a church home.  I am just not feeling that Bellefontaine will continue to be that place of worship for us.  
• Blog or journal.  I need a place to express myself!

I will continue to add to this list as I find things that I need to improve in myself and my family.

2014 a year in review

So, I slacked on a few things in 2014 and blogging was one of them.  It is a little harder for me to remember when we did some of the things we did this year.  2014 was a major eye opener for us.  It was the first year as a stay at home mom,  a job I didn't think would be harder than my paying job.  2014 was also a year for my first surgery, and being completely away from my kids for several days.  2014 was also a year of focusing on mainly the kids.  My year was spent revolving around them and I now see the good and bad in that.  Let's kick this review off

January:
Our little princess decided it was really time to scare mommy and daddy at only 5 weeks old.  After several instances where we "thought" she looked a little blue around the mouth, she went full on smurf on me.  We took her to Children's, where they decided to admit her for observations for the night.  That same night, I had my first gallbladder attack, although, at the time, I thought it was a kidney stone.  Fun times.  We spent the rest of the month hanging out at home because of the snow and finding balance as a family of 4

February:                                                                                                                                        

February was my surgery.  The night of Valentine's Day, I started running a fever and not feeling very well.  The next morning, I woke up with a bad backache and signs of dehydration.  I pushed water all day but nothing really helped.  We went to a few parties and I felt off, but not so sick that I needed to stay home.  Sunday morning I woke up feeling awful and as I was nursing Loralei, I noticed that I looked really yellow compared to her.  I went the Urgent Care where they took some blood and recommended I see the Doctor in the AM.  Well, that afternoon the pain got unbearable so we headed to MOBAP.  Admitted Sunday Night with a complete blockage of my bile duct and an inflamed gallbladder.  Monday I had a scope to clean out my bile duct and the stones.  Tuesday I  had that pesky gallbladder removed.  Wed and Thurs were spent pacing the hallways waiting for my Bili levels to return to normal so I could go home!!  It was a miserable experience but the Staff at MoBap was amazing!  The rest of the month was spent watching the Olympics and eating Packzi's!!!!

March

Our March was  pretty low key.  Mainly spent time with family.  My FIL had his knee replaced so I got to help take care of him.  We hosted a Trivia Night for my friend's little girl who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.  Loralei was baptized at Bellefontaine United Methodist Church.  Also, The Cardinals season kicked off with 2 excited little fans!

April                                                                                                                                     

A month of firsts for our little princess.  Loralei's first Easter, first Cardinals game, first Blues heartbreak! We visited the Zoo for a bday party and Loralei's first visit.  We explored the Lewis and Clark towers and the Great Rivers Museum and started hunting the Stl250 cakes!    We spent the month enjoying the beautiful weather.  Loralei learned how to roll over.  I ran in my first Graffiti Run which was really fun!

May

I turned 32 in May.  We celebrated Mother's day and the wedding of some good friends all in the same weekend.  We went to a few Cardinals games and spent a rainy Memorial Day weekend visiting cemeteries and watching the Cardinals play extra innings at Busch!!! Kenny got his first buzz cut and we spent a lot of time in the water!  

June                                                                                                                                            

We celebrated Kenny's 2nd birthday, Father's Day and Travis' birthday.  We went to the zoo, Daddy's work to see his new boat, and Kenny started soccer!  Father's day plans of raging rivers were cancelled because it wasn't even 80 degrees so we went to a splash park in the afternoon instead!  Kenny's party didn't go exactly as planned because it rained all day.  We had about a 4 hour window of no rain and then the sirens started going off!!!

July                                                                                                     

July started off with a bang as we celebrated the 4th of July.  We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the unseasonable cool weather!  We went to quite a few Cards games too!  Kenny continued with soccer and we celebrated Christmas in July with the Wunderlichs

August                                                                                                                      

August was pretty low key!  More baseball and lots of swimming!  I also saw El Monstero Live on Art Hill!  Very awesome!!!

September                                                        

We celebrated Logan's and Jacob's birthday and Kenny continued to improve in Soccer.  Loralei had her 9 month check up and was still in the 20th % for height and 90th % for weight.  My little chunky butt!  More Cardinals games, a visit from the Fitzgerald's, another Wunderlich Family reunion and the 150th anniversary Battle of Pilot Knob, where Travis and I renewed our wedding vows, made for a busy month!

                                                        

October                                                                                             

October was another busy month for us!  We had the Flanagan family reunion, Cardinals playoffs!!!!, the wedding of 2 beautiful friends of ours, Liesl and Ashley, and Halloween!  The wedding was at a vineyard in Augusta and it was simply stunning.   We spent halloween with my dad trick or treating around South City.  We even went to Mayor Slay's house! Travis and I also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by taking some photos at Fort Bellefontaine, recreating some of our wedding photos

November                                                                                       

November was pretty relaxed.  Loralei got a pretty good shiner.  We made a ton of cookies at our annual cookie day, and celebrated Thanksgiving, first with the Flanagans and then with the Woelbling/Muilenburg side of the family.  We had to miss the annual Hessel thanksgiving get together because, surprise surprise, we were sick.  3 years in a row!!!  We also started packing up and getting ready for our family trip to Branson!!!

December!                                                                                             

Bring on the holiday season.  We started the month by taking a family vacation to Branson with Travis' mom.  We did Silver Dollar City, the Dixie Stampede, Six, saw Christmas lights, the Titanic museum and the Polar Express!  It was a great trip!  We celebrated Loralei's birthday with a big party the day after we got home.  I can't believe my baby is 1!  It is hitting me hard!  We did a toy drive in honor of Murphy Baker and collected over 100 items! We donated those items to Children's Hospital! We had a few Christmas celebrations and the kids were spoiled at each and every one.  We ended the year with a low key dinner at Olga's and everyone except me in bed by 9!  

I hope each and every one of you has a healthy and happy 2015!!!