Simple Inspirations

Here is something simple, easy and yummy to make.

• 10 button mushrooms in chunky slices
• 1 medium onion, cut into rings
• 2 stalks of celery in chunky pieces
• 1 box of Chicken stock
• 1 to 2 cups of water
• 1/2 package of onion soup mix
• 4 cups of rigatoni pasta
• 4 tsp basil
• 4 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Quicky fry the mushrooms, onions and celery with salt and pepper until brown.  Add stock, soup mix, water and spices. Boil for 5 minutes and add pasta.  Simmer until liquid is gone and noodles are firm but not soggy.   EAT!!!!   NOW!!!

In this day and age there is so much going on around us (by this I mean me and assume it means you too) that there is very little time left to invest in looking good, feeling good, eatting well and makes changes to help your family a healthy one.  This site has some of the answer and what is better is that all these things are contained on one little easy to click website.  Genius.  www.makinglifebetter.com is chalked full of beauty, wellness, fitness, family, food and everythingelse and its easy to navigate. We know it is a series of daily baby steps, but this site is there to hold your hand (well your mouse button) every step of the way.

Wanna impress your mothe rin law with a great but cheap summer recipe..CLICK HERE. 

Need soemthing fast to bring to that sit down dinner you forgot until an hour ago??? (and you still need to wash clothes, make a card and dress the kids…) CLICK HERE

Wanna set your kids straight on allowance and need someone to back to you up…CLICK HERE

Need tips on sleeping well (here is one, don’t visit me…me and Asher party ALL THE TIME)  but for other great tips  CLICK HERE

These are just a few of the MILLIONS literally millions of helpful info this site dishes up..so check it out and share it with all those people you love so they can get it all together too.  (you can’t always be the only one looking good). 

of my love of food, the healthier the better (cheesecake aside). I LOVE this site (found through Mom Central) it is a must for Mom’s and anyone else interested in living a long healthy life (if this is not you take a peek anyways and maybe we can bring you over to the dark side  *ha ha*). The site is Stop and Shop’s Living Healthy pages. If you need a place to put that resolution to eat better to work for you..this is the place for you! Stop & Shop Supermarket has launched the Healthy Ideas program to help us make healthier choices, taking the guesswork out of shopping by placing the Healthy Ideas symbol on over 3000 food items to highlight those foods that are lower in fats, sodium etc and has at least one nutrient we need such as fibre (hey we all need it once in awhile..you know its true) calcium and minerals.  

Its great, and it can be trusted,  its criteria was developed by a team of dieticians and reviewed by physicians and nutrition experts including Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School. This program follows the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the USDA Food Pyramid (Mypyramid.gov) and the USDA/FDA’s definition of healthy as a basis for its foundation. This is a lot of writing which basically means that people who are smarter and likely healthier than me or you developed this amazing shelf symbol program to help us get on the healthy wagon too.

Just a few of my favorite recipes off the site (that you will likely see being put good use in following posts…) Chicken with Cheese Tortellini, Black Bean and Tortilla Soup, Black Bottom Peanut Butter Pie, Cranberry Fluff, Wafflasagna (yup its spelled just like that).  It’s a kid recipe…you can access these and literally hundreds more of healthy recipes HERE. You can add these to a cook book and shopping list to make sure you get everything you need the first time you are at the store, it also looks like you can check this weeks savings to save a few pennies and check for a Stop and Shop near you.

Chicken Noodle Soup

• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup corn
• 6 mushrooms
• 2 cups cabbage chopped
• 2 small potato, diced
• 2 teaspoon thyme
• 2 teaspoon basil
• 2 boxes of chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
• 1/2 bag  egg noodles
• 3 chicken breast baked in basil, torn
• parsley

        Melt butter in large pot.

        Sauté the celery, carrot and onion for 2 minutes.

        Add everything but the noodles.

        Bring to a boil.

        Add noodles and cook on low for 20 minutes.

       Sprinkle with parsley.

This is yummy soup, I made it for the family and then froze some and sent it to my GRANDMA..WHO ALSO LOVED IT!!!

Today there is a two for one deal…two great recipes….

The first is the yummo looking salad to the left..its actually Taco Stew leftovers on a salad..but it was SO GOOD!  The second recipe is for the country bread to the right….

Easy Taco Stew

To serve you can 1) scoop onto a plate and top cheese, sour cream and some chopped green onions and scoop with Dorito’s

To make your salad cover plate in salad top with 1 1/2 cups of stew, cheese, sour cream, and chopped green onions.  Crumble chips on top.  EAT!!!!!

Country Bread

•  3 cups of flour
• 4 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 1/4 cup of melted butter
• 1/4 cup salsa
• grated cheese

Mix flour, soda and salt well.  Stir in wet ingredients except cheese.  Mix loosely with hands until combined.  Should be rather moist.  Roll into a ball and place on greased cookie sheet.  Top with cheese. Score an x on top.

Cook 40 minutes at 400 degrees f.

There are a lot of things I love about summer..watermelon, popsicles, pool days..and one of the best is strawberries.  Living in winterpeg means that there are only about 2 months  year you can afford to buy strawberries.  MMM…on waffles, on icecream, in yogurt with special k chocolate cereal on top, in home made freezer jam….I really could go on and on. 

Some special strawberry facts for you and your kids, I love trivia (and can you tell I majoring in geography is university or what…:

• California provides 88% of the nation’s strawberries. With over 35,000 acres of fields across California, the growers will be picking nearly 6 million crates of delicious, ripe strawberries this week alone.
• If you lined up all of the strawberries grown in California in one straight line, they would wrap around the entire Earth 15 times.
• There are about 200 seeds on the outside of each strawberry.
• California harvests over a billion pounds of strawberries annually.  
• One acre of land (about the size of one football field) grows about 50,000 pounds of strawberries - that’s the same weight as 4 elephants! 
  

  And to reassure you why its okay to eat the whole pail:
  

  • Strawberries contain powerful antioxidants and rank second among the top ten fruits in antioxidant capacity: one serving of strawberries contains more Vitamin C than an orange.
  • Strawberries may help reduce the risk of heart disease, fight some types of cancer and lower blood pressure.  Not bad for a little red berry!
  • Don’t forget! The antioxidants in strawberries also aid in memory performance and may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, two key factors that can cause age-related diminished brain function.

  And who says you can’t play with your food….check out this fun site STRAWBERRYVILLE with your kids and show them the tons of fun activities that they play, and for some great recipes (i f you are the recipe goddess that I am you are all over this) there is a great site here RECIPES with a yummy banana split strawberry pie recipe that I am waiting to make.  Even the salads were catching my eye!!!  MAKE SURE TO CHECK IT OUT.

I remember eating frosted flakes a child.  I would fill the bowl to the top and put only a little milk in the bottom and scoop up from the bottom so the cereal would stay crunchy.  When I heard that Kelloggs had come up with a new take on an old favorite I just had to jump on the bandwagon, er, cereal wagon. I knew as soon as I opened the box and got the first whiff of the honey baked yumminess that I was in love. 

I am not a big fan of sugary cereals for breakfast.  They happen at our breakfast table to be honest, but not always with a full blessing.  There is something great about the new cereal I just tried out for Kelloggs.   Wild Animal Crunch is yummy.  I even found myself reaching for a second handful without thinking about it.  Its chocolate and vanilla animal shaped cereal.  Its brand new, the best part is one again..WHOLE GRAIN!  Yup, yummy and better for you than the average cereal.

If you don’t beleive me just check out the nutritional information at there site HERE!  You may have to see it to beleive it.

It got two thumbs up from all four of my girls..Abby couldn’t keep her hands out of the box.  She must have eaten the whole box by herself, sneaking one or two handfuls whenever I wasn’t looking. Then there was a scuffle between the girls for the last few handfuls.

Did I mention that this cereal was created in part with Animal Planet?  The boxes all have these adorable little animals on them.  Make sure to check them out!

I think it’s my nature as a mother to be rather unselfish.  I am always sharing my breakfast, my snack, even my coffee.   Today I tried the Special K Bliss Bars in Orange and Raspberry and I think I may have found something that almost made me hide them in the back of the cupboard!  They are AMAZING!!!

After only the first bite I was already feeling a a little naughty eating them.  Crispy, chocolate covered, almost sinful.  I could picture myself on the couch, basking in the afternoon sun light with a soft blanket and a fluffy pillow, in the middle of the afternoon with the kids asleep and a good book and a cup of coffee and a bliss bar.  They are that good!

They are these scrumptious bars made with real fruit and whole grain cereal and the best part is..you can afford to indulge because there are only 90 calories in every bar!  That makes them great for me, but my kids too!   I think there are way to many unhealthy options out there, but my 2 year old gave the bliss bars a great big MMMMMMMMM too.  SO if you can bare to give one up….they make a great snack for the kids too.  I mean there are six in the box, you can afford to share JUST one.

Maybe.

Not me.  But yesterday I tried the new Town House Flipsides which they sent me.  I opened the box as soon as I got back to the van.  I tried the first one and have toi admit the flavour was different than a cracker.  But as I was talking to my husband I realized that I kept reaching in for more.  I really do love them.  The cheddar and pretzel flavour together is interesting..and yummy! I give them two thumbs up.  With some cheese and ham on top, or even with a nice salsa they would make a great midday snack. 

I still had them in the van with me when we went to take the girls to swimming in the evening, and handed them out to see what the verdict would be, keep in mind I have two picky eaters out of the four girls.  My younger three said they were AWESOME and y oldest, who is the hardest to please cuisine wise said they were "good".

So if you are looking for something different to revolutionize snacking at your house..try these out.  You will find it hard to stop popping them into your mouth once you start!