Simple Inspirations

This week I got to sample of the two new Atkins products – Atkins Penne Pasta and Atkins All Purpose Baking Mix.  I have to tell you, I am usually weary of anything that promises to be "good for me"  even if it froma company as reputable as Atkins. But…I was pleasantly surprised. 

The Penne..its great.  Great texture, great taste.  I took about a cup of prepared noodles and threw them in a skillet with some olive oil, some onions, some green peppers, a TON of mushrooms, some thyme, basil, garlic, and pepper.  Threw in about 2 TBSP of the pasta water and sauteed it for about 15 minutes and it was YUMMY!!! (check the site for about 200 other recipes if you prefer..here)

The Baking Mix intimidated me, I enjoy comfort baking.  You know, things that are yummy and smell comfortable and nostalgic.  So I hunted the Atkins site for some recipes and I was blown away.  I was prepared to make waffles because that was pictured on the mix bag but the site had a TON of recipes for cookies, cakes, muffins, …..everything you could imagine.  I ended up making blueberry muffins (2 cups of mix, 1/2 cup of sour cream, 2 eggs, 3 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 cup soya milk, 5 TBSP of sugar, bag of frozen blueberries, probably 3/4 cup).  The kids gobbled them up.  I never mentioned that they were AhhK!!!!  good for them and chalked full of vitamins and protein.

Don’t forget to check out the contest HERE.  Enter Your Favorite Atkins Cuisine Recipe for an Opportunity to Win Fantastic Prizes, there is a limit of one entry per person per product (you can submit one recipe for Atkins Cuisine Penne Pasta and one for Atkins Cuisine All Purpose Baking Mix).

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Atkins and received samples to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Through the wonderful Mom Central I was privy to a little pre-taste of summer.  Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches.  They got their own sentence…they are THAT good.  I mean it.  I was skeptical enough to hold off on buying them myself, if something is not bad for you it tastes like it is.  Semantics.  But I was more than pleasantly suprised. 

These yummy treats are creamy, chocolatey, smooth and big enough to feel like you have splurged (when you haven’t). They come in six flavours (the mint and the cookies and cream are DELECTABLE) but I almost tried to the chocolate peanut butter.  Of course if you are a little more traditional there is old favorites of mine too..strawberry shortcake, chocolate, and vanilla. They have 140 calories each and only 2g of fat!  2 grams?!?!?  Its almost unreal (but this does not mean you can have two if you are watching your waistline, cheating is cheating). 

If you want something that is yummy buy won’t break the diet bank….try them…seriously.  They have become my summer treat staple. If you want more of the dietary info click the link in the beginning of the post.

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.

Yup, my little man turned one, and he is the cutest one year old ever (although I admit I may be prejudiced, a bit).  I have included in this post something I find relevant to him turning one, his developing personality.  He is NAUGHTY!  Not bad naughty, but into everything watch out here I some hide the valuables naughty.  The first two pictures tell a common (every five minutes) story, making a mess..and happy about it.

The second pics are from his birthday, he had his own little lemon pie (find a cake without milk, butter, applesauce) which he thoroughly enjoyed.

our week in review, I am studying and don’t have time to write but thought I would throw ya a bone )

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.