Well hey my friends! I don’t know about y’all, but MAN, I am up to my eyeballs in Christmas!
Part of me is lovin’ it because I LOVE this time of year!!! But, part of me is cryin’ uncle because I am dyyyyyying. Auuuugh.
We have been doing a lot of fun things though and living up the Christmas season!
We took our little kids to downtown Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square and that was a lot of fun. I love being in the city!
Kev and I also went to SLC, just the two of us, last weekend for the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with special guest, Kristin Chenoweth!
Oh my word, it was such a great concert and I enjoyed every second! Ya know, the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert is always a very popular ticket because first of all, it’s free! And, second of all, it’s phenomenal!
I hopped online the moments tickets became available, but I kept getting kicked off the system and couldn’t ever secure tickets. SO sad. Needless to say, I was SO happy when Kev’s brother (who lives in Idaho) said he was able to get two extra tickets and asked if we’d like to go!!!
YES!!!
So grateful. It was such a great show and she’s my favorite guest they’ve ever had. She is such a sweetheart and is just so endearing. I’d love to see her in concert!
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This past Sunday, we went up to my mom’s house to do the annual Candy Houses and reenactment of the Nativity Story.
We had SO MUCH candy and I’m sad to say that after 3 1/2 weeks with no sugary stuff, I snitched a little! I didn’t go crazy (although I wanted to!), so I’m just chalkin’ it up as “enjoying Christmas festivities” and moving on!
We had a fun night!
I also loved watching my kids and their cousins reenact the Nativity Story. I’m so glad all of the big kids are such great sports and still want to participate!
I had to laugh because my precious little 4 year old (the youngest cousin/grandchild on both sides of the family!) said he wanted to be Baby Jesus. He actually asked about it several times the past couple weeks and it was completely his own idea! I thought it was sweet.
So, although he was a GIANT baby, he stayed “in character” the entire time and just pretended to be sleeping. It was so funny.
My sweet, soft spoken 8 year old said he wanted to be Joseph. He is such a doll and such a blessing to me. It was a fun night!
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We’ve been busy doing a lot of other not-so-fun Christmas stuff as well. Shopping, shopping and more shopping and all of the other zillion Christmas to-do’s!
I’m happy to say I think I’m finally done Christmas shopping! Woot! We still gotta get our Christmas cards in the mail and deliver gifts to our neighbors and the kid’s teachers and THEN, I think we’ll be done.
Oh, I still gotta wrap all the gifts too! But, then I really think that’s it!
Every year, I always try to get everything done early so I don’t stress myself out, but every year I struggle!
One day, I’ll figure it out!
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I also wanna tell you guys that my 15 year old got his braces off last week!
He was thrilled! This not-so-little boy of mine has grown up SO MUCH this year. It’s crazy! I gotta show y’all our Christmas card pic from last year compared to this year. Check out how much he’s grown!
CRAZY! He’s now about 5′ 10″ and so happy ’bout it. He just looks and seems so old to me now. Sigh.
These kids just grow up too fast and I seriously don’t know where the time goes!
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Well, since life has been so nuts lately, I thought I would share a bunch of simple, easy, yummy meals that I make and eat regularly! These meals definitely simplify my life and make healthy living possible for me!
I’m always a crazy lady who runs around like a chicken with my head cut off at all times! I know I HAVE to have very simple, easy ingredients and meals on hand all the time that I can whip up very quickly. This is vital to my success with health and fitness and is my #1 tip for healthy living and/or losing weight!
Sadly, our society is so fast paced, busy and crazy to the max that healthy, real food isn’t a part of a lot of people’s diets. I actually think healthy food is kind of a foreign concept to a lot of people and they really just don’t know what to eat or where to begin!
Well, I will tell ya the basics that have helped me so much with healthy eating and making it a lifestyle (hint: it’s not rocket science)….
- Don’t overthink it.
- Eat simple, real food.
- I don’t have time to “meal prep,” so I try to make extra at dinner and enjoy the leftovers for a few days!
- Identify several foods and meals that you can throw together very quickly and then keep the fridge and pantry stocked with the ingredients.
- Eat a lot of the same things often! When I find a healthy food or meal I like….I just keep making it!
- Throw away all of the crappy food in the house that you know will call your name and cause you to cave! If you can’t throw it out, then hide it well! Better yet, have someone else hide it!
- Don’t bring crappy and tempting food home in the first place!
That’s it!
So, I will show you guys some of the meals that I eat on the regular. I know some of you will look at some of my meals and think, “Ewww, I would never want to eat that!” AND, that’s just fine! You don’t have to!
You just gotta find simple foods and meals that you WILL eat and then eat those things!
Sooooo, this is one of the staples that I have all the time…
Various versions of Protein Pancakes and Kodiak Cakes (BTW, I like my Chocolate Protein Pancake recipe better than Kodiak cakes!)
I usually make a big batch (I triple my recipe!) and then I freeze the leftovers in a gallon sized Ziploc bag. It makes it so simple because then I can just pull a couple out, pop them in the toaster and voila, a yummy, healthy meal in no time!
I like to top mine with a light smear of natural peanut butter, fruit, a drizzle of sugar free syrup (maple, chocolate or caramel) and a dollup of whipped cream in a can (not exactly healthy, but only 15 calories per 2 Tablespoons!)
I usually have some scrambled egg whites on the side. Sometimes I add a whole egg to the mix too, it just depends on how much fat I want to include!
Here’s another “staple breakfast” I have quite often…
My go-to scrambled egg whites with oatmeal! This is another meal that I love so much because I always have the ingredients on hand, it takes me about 5 minutes to prepare and it’s warm and comfort food-ish!
I have a few different variations of oatmeal that I make often (you can find recipes in my Recipe section), but this particular one was my apple cinnamon variety. I also mix in some cooked riced cauliflower quite often these days as well. I know it sounds weird, but I can’t even taste it!
Here’s another quick and easy staple…
Various sandwiches on either Flatouts or Joseph’s pita or lavash bread (I buy both at Walmart!) I particularly love those Flatout Fold its. They are so good, soft and yummy! I think they are my favs!
I typically make tuna fish sandwiches (tuna, pickles and a little olive oil based mayo) or turkey sandwiches (mayo, mustard, turkey, a little cheese, pickles and lettuce.) They are both so good, so quick and so filling!
Here’s one of our family’s favorite dinners…
Tacos! I know, I know, they are nothing fancy or new, but I love them! They are so quick, yummy, everyone likes them, I can make them healthy and I enjoy the leftovers!
We use Tortilla Land’s raw tortillas and they are so good and made with simple ingredients! Sometimes I skip the tortilla and just make a taco salad! It depends on what I’ve already eaten throughout the day (if I’ve already had a lot of carbs, I skip the tortilla) I top mine with FF refried beans, turkey taco meat, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream and sometimes cheese and guac.
Another dinner staple ’round here…
Homemade pizza! This is another recipe that I love because it’s simple, quick and nobody complains! You can find my pizza recipe here.
Whenever I make pizza, I almost always make me a little one on either Flatouts or Joseph’s pita or lavash bread. It’s so simple and yummy! I sometimes have a slice of the regular pizza I make too. SO good!
I also love to make soup for dinner! Soup is warm, comforting, simple and can be full of so many awesome ingredients! It’s also so good as leftovers and it freezes well. Score.
This was a random Green Chicken Chili that I made (on the left) with a peach topped with cottage cheese on the side and my Turkey, Kale and Brown Rice soup (on the right) with a rice cake topped with NuttZo.
Here are a few more typical dinners at our house…
Various versions of stir-fry (pic on the left.) This one is made from brown rice, stir-fry veggies, rotisserie chicken (sometimes I grill or stir-fry chicken too!) and a few pot stickers (from Costco.)
The pic of the right is meatloaf, sweet potato topped with Nuttzo and green beans. I haven’t shared a meatloaf recipe on here yet because I just haven’t found “that one” recipe that I love. Dang it. I will keep trying though!
Sometimes I come up with very random meals and snacks…
This was just a veggie tray from Costco (so quick and easy to munch on!), a sliced cucumber from our garden, some rotisserie chicken and a peach topped with cottage cheese.
Here’s another random creation…
Two rice cakes (White Cheddar flavor) topped with cottage cheese, rotisserie chicken (Can ya tell I love rotisserie chicken!? It’s so easy!) and guac. With a banana on the side. Weird, but it worked!
I also gotta mention that I don’t make salads at home too often. For some reason, I just don’t like the ones I make at home too much. So, another quick and easy meal I have often is a take-out salad! Here in Utah, I especially love Apollo Burger’s salads. They are the best!
The two salads on the left are from Apollo Burger and the one on the right is from Cubby’s (another huge favorite of mine!)
Okay, and I gotta mention my all-time, most common meal that I have almost every day! A protein shake or green smoothie!
I can’t say I love, love, love them, BUT they are by far, the simplest, easiest and packed full of nutrition thing that I eat…or uh drink!
I love them for that!!! It would be so hard for me to get this much nutrition in my body from another meal. I make my shakes out of things like kefir, unsweetened cashew milk, protein powder, plain Greek yogurt, flax seed, chia seed, fruit, greens powders, cucumbers, avocado, all kinds of greens and whatever other random stuff I want to throw in there!
I also love that I can whip one up in two minutes and take it with me on the go if I need to! I loooooove my protein shakes and consider them a HUGE factor in my success with healthy living!
Well, I think that’s all the pics I will share today! I’m sorry I’ve shared a gazillion! I just feel so strongly that if you want to feel well and full of energy, you have to consistently fill your body full of good food! I also think it’s vital to simplify the whole process by enjoying simple, easy and quick healthy foods that you love!
Folks, when I stick to meals such as this I always feel so good, lose weight (if that is my intention), my body functions so well and I just love it! IT IS EASY!
I hope some of these meals may help give you guys some good ideas! You can always change up any of these things to make them your own too!
Well, I gotta wrap this up so I can get back to finishing all of my Christmas stuff! I hope you all have a wonderful night!!! xoxo
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