Baby It's Cold Outside!

Pot Roast

The weather here is turning a bit chilly.  It was cool and rainy this morning when I got up, so I decided to put a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner this evening.  I saw the recipe on Facebook and it only called for a few ingredients.  That's my kind of recipe!

Assemble ingredients:
3 pound chuck roast
1 envelope dry Italian dressing mix
1 envelope dry ranch dressing mix
1 envelope dry gravy mix
2 cups water, but I used beef stock

Brown the roast in a skillet with salt and pepper until a crust develops.  It creates a yummy taste when it's browned first.

 

 

Mix the 2 cups of liquid with all three envelopes of dry seasoning packets. 

Place the browned meat in the crock pot and then pour liquid over it.  Cover and cook on high for 6 hours.  Cut and enjoy!

I will definitely make this recipe again.  It was so flavorful and well seasoned.  It stayed moist and fell apart when I sliced it.  Yum!  I served it with mashed potatoes and salad.  It was a rib sticking meal that pleased my family.  John will also enjoy this meat on a roll for a quick dinner when we are busy and unable to cook a proper meal this coming week.  I think I will double the meat next time because 3 pounds is not enough even for our small family.  I also like to take our leftovers to work for lunch, so I will buy six pounds of chuck roast next time.  I probably won't have to double the liquid because there was plenty.  My crock pot is 25 years old, but is quite large and can handle as much meat as I want to cook.

No Sugar Update and Other Stuff

Hi All,

I just wanted to touch base and tell you how the "no sugar" lifestyle is going.  I'm not going to say it has been easy or that I am doing things perfectly, but I am monitoring myself more and I feel better already.  It isn't as hard for me to give up bread carbs as it is to go without sugar.  I don't know why that is, but I think they call it addiction for a reason.  It is hard to give up sugar!  Anyway, I find that I am relying on natural sugars from fruits and veggies to tame my cravings.  I did address that in my previous post and I decided to do fruits in moderation, and not cut them out altogether.  Any hoo, Audra and I did a quick stop at Target today to get her snacks for the week.  These are a couple of items she picked up and I think they signify that autumn is in the air!!

On the other hand, I will not be indulging in the deliciousness of fall.  I am going to give you an awesome recipe that I made this evening.  Don't judge it until you try it.  I made this up and my family loves it!  Audra had already eaten a complete dinner when I pulled this out of the oven.  She ate again.  I don't know where the girl puts all the food.

Assemble the ingredients:

Half of a package of Lipton Onion Soup Mix (dry)

1 8oz can of crushed pineapple with juice drained

1 splash soy sauce (told you I made it up)

1 pkg Jennie-O Ground Turkey Breast

1/2 white onion diced

1 Log Fresh Mozzarella (this one had some kind of spices and oil packed in it)

2 slices white bread soaked in a couple tablespoons milk (I used gluten free, but you don't have to)

1 Pkg large mushroom caps (2 per package)

** I only bought one package of mushroom caps because I figured Audra would want hers on a bun or bread.  I was wrong, she ate the mushroom one.  She commented that she doesn't even like mushrooms and it was delicious.  

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl, leaving the mozzarella out so I could top the meat with it later and melt it.  If you chunked it and put it in the meat, it would be delicious too.

Then form into meatloaf, burgers and/or top mushroom caps.

Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then I topped with a red bell pepper that I wanted to use up and cheese.  Let it melt for another 5-7 minutes.  I couldn't get them to stop eating the meat.  I really wanted to save it for leftovers because we have a busy week coming up.  I think I will name the meal "Hawaiian Turkey Burgers."

I also made roasted sweet potatoes and carrots and steamed some broccoli.  Here are my lunches for the week and Audra's dinner for tomorrow night.  Voila!! Yum!!

Here is a shout out to all of our friends in Florida.  I know they are getting hit with the hurricane as I type this post and am thankful to hear that Irma may be losing some of her punch.  Let's keep praying for Florida and our friends in Mexico who withstood a devastating earthquake this week.

Have a great week.  Let's try to have a complete week without a major weather event!!

No More Sugar

     Funny I would write this post is on the heels of my Puppy Chow post, but I am ridding myself of sugar starting today.  Sugar is counterproductive for digestion and overall health.  I have been a "sugar addict" most of my life and have known for a while that I need to detox.  My motivation is to decrease inflammation, balance digestion and regain energy levels.  I had a great summer, but am paying the price for overindulgence.  Lately I have let bad habits creep into my routine by overindulging in dessert, cookies and candy.  I am eating something sweet after every meal!

     Eliminating sugar and processed foods is considered a low-carb diet.  I envied people who could eliminate one thing, like soda, and transform their whole metabolism.  I always considered myself a healthy eater, so I never thought I had anything to cut out.  Now I realize I do have one thing needing to be eliminated.  Sugar!! It's time to "get real" and face the fact that sugar is not my friend.

     I am a faithful goal setter and have been making a bunch of professional goals for myself and my students.  So, I need to make some health goals too!  I've broken down my goal into some manageable steps that are outlined below.  You can click on the links if you want to get more information about fiber and healthy fats.  An undertaking like this is not just about elimination of sugar, but finding replacement foods to keep me satisfied.  Developing replacement behaviors will ensure habits will be changed with long term success.

1. Eat more fiber.
2. Include more protein.
3. Eat more healthy fats.
4. Add fermented foods to diet daily.  These foods aid in digestion and have detoxifying properties that can help heal the gut.
5. Read ingredient labels carefully when grocery shopping.  (Sugar is hard to identify on the ingredient labels because it can have up to 60 alternate names.) 
6. Meal prep on Sunday for a successful week.  I will post weekly meal plans to share my week ahead.  
7. Sweat every day.

     I plan on take some help from other bloggers who have already done all the hard work of testing the recipes and planning balanced sugar free menus. I'm not too proud to take help from others.  Most of my recipes will come from Skinny Taste because these recipes are easy and don't have a lot of ingredients.  All of the recipes I selected for week 1 are low carb and can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.  

     I anticipate that breakfast is going to be a hard meal for me to prepare.  I usually don't pre-plan breakfast.  I buy a couple boxes of cereal and grab whatever appeals to me in the moment. Incorporating more protein and healthy fats into my breakfast meal will be a huge challenge and will force me to get creative.  I usually take left over dinner to work for lunch the next day. Provided I make dinners that follows the plan, then lunch should be a cinch. 

     Consuming more fermented foods will be unusual for me because I hate, hate, hate anything sour tasting.  As luck would have it, Costco is carrying a new product called Kombucha Fermented Tea that packs a punch of fermentation in a small shot.   It will be easy to drink a couple of times a day if I can get beyond the weird taste.  It is also naturally sparkling due to the fermentation process that it goes through.  I tried a sample and it reminded me of taking a shot of cider vinegar, which I have heard also has amazing health benefits.  I need to look into the sugar content on this product before I commit.  Other sources of fermentation are tempeh, miso, sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir and kombucha.  I do take probiotics and digestive enzymes daily and I love these products I have delivered from Plexus.  

     I am defining the kind of sugar I am eliminating because this will keep me accountable.  For the next 30 days, I will eliminate refined sugar, the white stuff, and will avoid processed foods containing the refined stuff (including corn syrup and anything in that category).  I will allow some natural carbs like fruit, honey, stevia and agave in moderation.  A friend sweetens her coffee with honey.  I think I will give that a try.  I want to ultimately develop a pallet that tastes the natural sweetness in things like almonds.  The only way I have accomplished this in the past is to not eat anything super sweet for a little while, even if it is natural.  Bottom line, I don't want to overindulge in anything sweet tasting so I can recalibrate my taste buds. 

     This is my meal plan for the coming week.  I am making extra protein with dinner meals to have left overs for lunch.  I am making a double recipe of the Chipotle Chicken meal, so we can have it one other night over a salad or wrapped in tortillas. These three breakfast meals will be repeated all week for ease and convenience.

Breakfast
Breakfast Quinoa Bowl
Avocado Toast
Hard boiled Eggs with Turkey Breakfast Sausage

Lunch
I will take leftovers from dinner the night before most days.
I also bought a 1/2 pound of deli turkey meat and will make meat and cheese
rollups for snacks and lunch if I get bored with leftovers.


Dinner

Garlic Shrimp in Coconut Milk

Chipotle Chicken Bowls

Beef and Cabbage Soup
Grilled Salmon with Veggies

Wish me luck! I would love to hear your comments and please post links to your favorite sugar free recipes.

Back To School.....For Me

Hello All,

    I teach students with dyslexia to read in an awesome school district here in Texas.  The school, the teachers, and the district have spent a week casting the vision for the coming school year and it promises to be exceptional.  Below you will see the tee shirts that reflect this vision.

This is the district shirt - 100%-All Means All - This is the continuation of our "One Vision" transformation journey that began last year.  All educators are encouraged to stay on the path and continue to transform and improve the district one student at a time.

This one says "1 in 5 Students Depend on Me."  I am passionate about identifying and teaching students with dyslexia and providing remediation that will pave the way for a lifetime of success. Struggling readers need support and often have feelings of uncertainty and low self-esteem.  The alarmingly high incidence of dyslexia surprised me.  I had no idea that 20 percent of our population had some level of Dyslexia.  That's a huge number and answered a lot of nagging questions about why some students were lagging behind in language acquisition and reading.

This hashtag is on the back of our school shirt this year.  It is a reminder for us to make the learning experience accessible to all students.  I especially believe that if they don't learn the way we teach, then we need to teach the way they learn.  I am proud that our MTA curriculum is multi-sensory and inherently engaging.  I still remind myself every day to develop lessons that students will enjoy by taking into consideration their specific interests and learning styles.  The best part of my job is developing the personal relationships with the kiddos and watching them grow!!

     On a different subject, I made some puppy chow with my kids on Friday night and decided to blog about it for a couple of reasons.  The recipes fit into the "Back to School" theme because I love giving treats like this to my teammates or sending baggies to school with my kids in their lunches.  The two flavors we made were Caramel Churro and Lemon White Chocolate Puppy Chow.

Carmel Churro Mix
Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups Rice Chex™ cereal
• 4 1/2 cups Corn Chex™ cereal
• 1cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
• 1/4 up light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Assemble Ingredients

Preheat oven to 350.  Place cereal in a large, heat safe bowl.  Line a large baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick baking spray.

In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar and set aside.   in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring the brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup mixture to a boil.  Let boil for one minute, stirring constantly, then remove from heat and stir in baking soda.  We didn't have any baking soda, and it still turned out amazing.

Pour over cereal and stir until cereal is coated.

Spread cereal on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon/sugar mixture. 

Bake for about 5 minutes, then flip with a spatula and bake for 3 more minutes, until cereal turns golden brown.

Remove from oven and let cool completely, then break up and store in an airtight container.  Or eat it right now because it was yummy warm.  Look at them!

Blueberry Lemon White Chocolate Puppy Chow

Ingredients

• 1 box Chex™ blueberry flavored cereal
• 1 1/4 cups white vanilla baking chip
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I'm told fresh lemon juice is better than the bottled kind.)
• 2 cups powered sugar

Assemble Ingredients 

Measure out cereal and put in bowl.  The kids didn't get the right cereal, so ours was white chocolate and lemon without the blueberry.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave baking chips, butter, lemon peel and lemon juice uncovered on "high" 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth. Pour lemon mixture over cereal; stir until evenly coated.

Once coated, pour cereal mixture into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; gently shake until well coated. Spread evenly on parchment paper or waxed paper. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Store in airtight container.

Amanda is always happy.

I'm told these snacks are gluten free.  That opens up a whole lot of possibilities for some of you.  Enjoy!!

Chicken Wings

The summer squad gets together on Friday evenings and my husband suggested we bring hot wings to the party.  I agreed because wings appeal to all ages and serve a large crowd.  I found the recipe on the back of the hot sauce bottle and it was a cinch to make.  Three ingredients are all that is needed to make this awesome dish.

Two packages of frozen chicken drumettes, 2.5 pounds each
1/4 Texas Pete or any hot sauce
6 Tablespoons of butter

Melt butter and hot sauce in a pan on the stove until butter is melted.  Meanwhile, bake the drumettes according to package directions.  I baked them at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and then 15 minutes at 375 degrees to get them to brown up nicely.

When baking the drummettes, I arranged the frozen chicken pieces on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, so cleanup would be easier later on.  I put them in a single layer and I  prefer

them on the overcooked side, because you can never be safe with chicken. 

When the drummettes were done baking, I was planned to transfer them to a wire rack to then baste them with the hot sauce/butter mixture.  I quickly realized that I should just drench the wings in the yummy hot sauce mixture for the best flavor.  

So, skip this step and just throw them all in a large bowl.

Dump them all in a large bowl.

Then douse the whole bunch of chicken with the whole pan full of hot sauce/ butter yumminess.

Serve hot with lots of extra hot sauce for those people who appreciate it spicier.

One of my happy customers!

As I mentioned at the top of the post, the squad consists of our beach friends, new and old, who are truly the heart of our beach experience every year.  It is hard to explain how these people unconditionally welcome us, year after year, into the social fold of Cornfield Point.  Our family has gathering at this beach for over 70 years, and so have the families of these fine women.  Whether we meet each day at the beach to soak up the sun, gather for the amazing nightly sunset, stroll to bingo, craft night, field day, or party on Karen's back deck on Friday nights, I can fraternize at the drop of the hat.  These people make summer days and nights so special that Audra and I long for them the other 10 months of the year.  This isn't goodbye yet, but it is the official picture of summer 2017.  I love our squad, keep smiling!!

From left to right
Me, Liz, Heather Karen, Lauren
Jenna up front holding Cornfield Point Sign