@>--- Apple & Pear Salad ---<@

What you will need:


1 bunch of romaine lettuce - chopped
2 apples - cored and sliced
2 pears - cored and sliced
1/4 cup of raisins (optional)
1/4 cup of pecans or almonds (optional)

4 TBSP Raspberry Dressing

In a large bowl add the ingredients and mix well to coat the salad with the dressing. Enjoy!

Very Berry Salad

What you will need:

1 head of romaine lettuce - chopped

2 cups of strawberries - cored and sliced

1 cup of black berries

1 cup of blue berries

4 TBSP Raspberry dressing

In a large bowl add the lettuce, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Mix the ingredients well. Add the salad dressing and mix well to coat the lettuce with the dressing. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes then serve! Enjoy!

~Banana & Berry Breakfast~

What you will need for this recipe is:

5 Strawberries (large ones are preferred) - chopped or sliced
1/4 cup of blue berries
1 banana sliced.

In a container add the strawberries, blue berries, and banana. Then transfer to a bowl, mix and eat!

Kale Stir Fry

Things have got me in a place where I need to start making better choices for my health so I will begin with a Kale Stir Fry.

Today I am making a stir fry using:

1 bunch of kale - shredded
3 peppers (red, yellow, orange) - sliced
1 bunch of green onion (scallions) - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - minced
Coconut oil

In a skillet add 2 tbsp of coconut oil, and saute the scallions in the skillet. Next, add the kale and allow it to cook down while stirring frequently. Add the peppers and garlic and continue to stir while the peppers are cooking down (becoming soft). Once all this has been done, remove the skillet from the heat and serve. I will post a pic after it has been cooked!

You can also add scrambled eggs to make this more of a breakfast meal too! cook scrambled eggs and mix with some of the stir fry you just made.

Butterflies - Smithsonian

My husband took me to the butterfly pavilion at the Smithsonian this weekend! MAN was it crazy! There were so many people and of course everyone is waiting to see the cherry blossoms, which have arrived late this year due to the harsh weather.
While we were in the Museum of Natural History, we had seen the Hope Diamond, some strange looking stone formations, an Orchid room full of many different kinds of beautiful orchids and of course the butterfly pavilion. Here are pictures for you to enjoy from the butterfly pavilion. The butterflies were landing on people and their clothing, it was pretty sweet!

 The room where the butterflies were, was VERY warm, but beautiful! Full of flowers and an area with live caterpillars and cocoons. If you ever get the change, go! It was $6 a person and so worth it!

Since I have been dealing with issues with my knee and foot, I had to go home and rest my foot that evening. All in all, we had a great day!

The results are in!

A year and a half ago, I injured myself at work and instead of making a report and getting myself looked at right away, I allowed pride to over take me because I didn't want to be labeled, a klutz, incompetent, clumsy, you name it! So I dealt with the pain for a LONG while! It was difficult to go up and down stairs, drive my car, even walk a few feet without pain. I was limping and shifted all of my body weight to my left heel, which caused another problem, plantar facetious. GREAT! Another thing to get myself FIXED from! A month had passed and I had gone back home to get the rest of my belongings to move to my new place! Thankfully my family, boyfriend and friends were there to help, because there was NO way on earth I would have been able to do any of the lifting and moving on my own! Also, my boyfriend asked me to marry him! So this also played a part in my prolonging getting my knee checked out.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, when you sit down at a desk for the first time, be very certain there is NO keyboard tray holder under the desk that may be turned backward, only showing the metal plate that is attached to the bottom of the desk, it SUCKS when you ram your knee into the plate because you didn't know it was there! SO be very careful!

Ok, let's continue. February came around and a friend of mine was sharing with me about a product she used and how it had helped her after a VERY bad accident she and her family were in that should have killed them, but praise our heavenly Father, it didn't! She is a great friend of mine today! Anyhow, she shared with me how the product helped her neck not be in pain anymore and how life is MUCH better than it ever was! Heck, I need to get some of what you have! After a week, I noticed my pain was still in my knee and my foot. After two weeks, the pain wasn't as bad to deal with....after 6 weeks the pain was gone! See this product is an anti-inflammatory product. This is how it has helped my friend, myself and other friends that had issues with arthritis! They were taken off their medication by their doctor and continue to drink this product! Other friends had been taken off diabetes medication and others off of high cholesterol/ blood pressure medications! Friends of mine that have been diagnosed with ceallic disease (gluten issues) and are lactose intolerant take this product with no issues and there are NO fillers! The ingredients are organic, grown in nutrient rich dense soil and are SUPER FOODS!

Ok, so like I said 6 weeks and NO MORE PAIN! I was able to run, jump, bend, kneel, crawl and everything else you can do on your knees, again with absolutely no pain! Also, I was working out and changed my diet to be healthier for me. Well, I was getting ready for my wedding and wanted to look amazing!

Fast forward to this week 4/3/2015, during February I was sick for 2 weeks and had the intention of checking if my knee was better. I still had no pain in my knee, but it was still clicking, snapping and popping so obviously, I was concerned. I took myself off the product and the pain of course came back! Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it was when I was first injured, but it still stunk! This week, I finally went to the orthopedic where they took an xray of my knee. The doctor wanted to know why I took so long getting to the office and I shared with him the exact same thing I shared with you in this post! When I told him that I took myself off the product, he looked at me like I was insane for doing such a thing, I mean IT WAS WORKING!!! He had told me to get back on the product and start working out again! I was blown away!!! I said, so I was already doing what I needed to do? Yes, and also I want you to take physical therapy! Ok, why physical therapy if I am already doing what I need to do? He advised that it is because physical therapy will help me exercise my knee in ways that I would otherwise not know about.

Ok, so this week I also went to the physical therapist and they told me to do the same thing, get back on the product, do low impact exercises because my knee is still inflamed and do my home exercises they gave me, as well as visit the office 3 times a week!

Can you believe this? The doctor and the physical therapist are NOT pushing drugs at me!!! They see something working and are encouraging me to continue!!! What is also amazing is this product is very affordable! More affordable than a meal at a fast food joint!

Well, I just had to share the good news with you! If you have any questions about what this product is and want more information, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me on facebook!

Cinnamon Apple Oats & Honey

Do you ever have too many apples that you just have no cotton pickin' idea what you are going to do with them? It's not like you are in the mood to pick one up and take a bite out of it. What do you do? I figured it out! My mom has given me a recipe from my Mamaw for rhubarb strawberry crisp, don't get too excited just yet. That recipe will be for later, let's take care of our apples for now.

It's so good your lips will SMACK you!

Apples in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes

What you will need:
6 Cups of sliced Apples keep in mind the more you have the more of the other ingredients you will need as well!

4 TBSP Cinnamon
2 Cups of Oats
2 TBSP Butter
5 TBSP Honey

Don't turn the oven on just yet or it will get too hot in the kitchen. Slice the apples, I used a tool to slice apples with one movement and also cores the apple too! While slicing the apples, put them aside in a bowl. In a separate bowl add cinnamon, apple spice, and oats.  After the apples have been sliced and cored, turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Put butter in a skillet and turn the heat on to medium to high, add apples (You want a LARGE Skillet so you can turn the apples and coat with the butter). While mixing the apples in the skillet, you will add just a 3 tbsp of the oats and cinnamon. Continue to cook on the stove for 10 minutes until the apples begin to get soft and break down, but not too soft. Then add the apples to a baking pan, add the honey and rest of the dry mixture. Mix the ingredients well and bake for 25 minutes! Take out of the oven and enjoy!

Bowl of Delicious Apple Bake!

This goes great with vanilla ice cream or even by itself!

Pretzel Parmesan Chicken Breast

Today I wanted to make something special for my husband and use what we already have at home. He is NOT a bird man, he is all about COW, ground beef, steaks... but sometimes the bird just HAS to win and this was a day for bird!

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breast
2 c. crushed pretzels
1 tsp. Pink Salt
1 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. ground mustard
3 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese (the kind that you use to sprinkle over spaghetti)

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Add aluminum foil to a cookie sheet and spray with Pam Olive Oil. Add pretzels to a food processor to get 2 cups of crushed pretzels, then add salt, pepper, ground mustard, and crushed red pepper and blend well. Then put ingredients into a bowl and cover chicken breasts. Add the chicken to the cookie sheet and top with cheese. Cook chicken for 45 minutes.

Mouth Watering Meat Loaf with Dill Red Potatoes

Monday while I was at work, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice if your husband came home to a meal?" So, after work I went to the store, used his card, and picked up food for dinner. Now, we both DO NOT LIKE MEAT LOAF! Now it could have been how it was cooked or what was used, whatever it was does not matter anymore because we absolutely love this recipe! If you never liked meat loaf YOU GOT TO TRY THIS! My husband, who is extremely picky about food said he would be willing to eat this three days in a row!

Meat Loaf
2 pounds of 93/7 ground beef
2 eggs
3/4 c. crushed crackers
3/4 c. ketchup
1/3 c. water
1 packet Lipton Secrets Onion
2 cloves of garlic (minced)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well in a bowl. Put the mixture into a meatloaf pan 13x9 preferably and cook for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. You can drain the excess grease into the garbage or a safe container, but not down the sink.

Dill Red Potatoes
7 Medium Red Potatoes
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
3 tsp hymilain salt
3 tsp black pepper
3 tsp butter
1/2 c. cream cheese
1/4 c. dried dill

Clean the potatoes and cut out the eyes, cut the potatoes in quarters and boil for 30 minutes or until you can easily put a fork in the potatoes. Remove the potatoes from the pot with a slated spoon into a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients along with a 1/4 c. of water the potatoes were boiled in and mash until all ingredients are mixed well.

Enjoy!!!!

I don't have any pictures because we ate this meal!

Bummer...

Two weeks ago, I began working out with the 21 Day Fix because I wanted to have two rounds of this workout before my 36th birthday on March 21st! However, after the 6th day I became sick and had no idea what was going on. All I knew was that I had been coughing more frequently and my throat became sore as well as a slight headache.

I haven't felt this miserable in a very long time! I had been drinking my Shakeology everyday like I am supposed to, then I am certain I wouldn't have fallen to this illness. I went to work on Monday, but Tuesday to Friday I had to stay home because my illness kept getting worse. Wednesday my husband took me to see the doctor and I wanted everything naturally. I didn't want to put poison in my body so she gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and said if I am not better by Sunday then I need to take them. Friday came around and I was even worse on Friday than I was on Wednesday. So regretfully my husband took me back to the doctors office and he told me that I have sinusitis trying to turn into bronchitis. I was ready to give in and take whatever the doctor wanted to give me.

Saturday, I rested at home and didn't do ANYTHING. It was our 4th anniversary of when we began dating so my husband went out and got me two boxes of chocolates and a cute card. He went out in the horrible snowy/icy weather to CVS just to make me happy! He is such a wonderful man! I wish I could have done something special for him, but I made him a card/poem on my laptop.My husband ordered our dinner and got me some spicy chicken.

Sunday, I woke up feeling much better since I had been taking my antibiotics and medicine. However, I am still resting to get better.

Homemade Natural Shampoo

One thing that is VERY important to me is to live naturally. Now not everything in my life is as natural as I would like it to be, but one step at a time.

What woman does not want sassy hair and save money at the same time?

I have found several different resources to make shampoo, but today I found one that requires only 2 ingredients and I also added essential oil, Lavender and Vanilla.

1 TBSP of Baking Soda
1 C. of water
10 drops of essential oil
1 refurbished shampoo container

Mix all ingredients in the shampoo container and it is ready to use.

SweetPotato And Egg Brunch

This morning I was very hungry! Took my husband to work and had to begin working myself. It's awesome to work from home because I was able to make myself a delicious and healthy brunch. I had a sweet potato and scrambled eggs.

1 sweet potato
4 eggs

Turn oven to 400 degrees. Put sweet potato in foil on a cookie sheet and bake for 70 minutes. Then pull out of oven, cut down the middle and slice across, add butter and put aside. Scramble 4 eggs, add black pepper, pink himalayan sea salt and cayenne pepper.

Add the eggs on top of the sweet potato. Delicious.

Keeping It Real!

In order to be real with everyone else, you must first be real with yourself and to be quite frank, for several months I haven't been real with myself. I have been on hyatius for several months after getting married August 31st and ALL that work, effort and time I put into losing 20 pounds and 20 inches has disappeared! After getting married, I didn't have to try to fit or lose weight to wear a wedding dress or to look great to be the center of attention anymore. What did I do? Where did I go? Why did I let myself go yet again? Well, I wish I could tell you all of the answers, but at this moment I can't. All I can say is that I am happily married and being married is something that I am learning to do. Learning to be a wife that wants to be healthy and exercise while incorporating my husbands eating habits with  mine. We both enjoy cooking, sometimes one of us loves cooking more than the other so the other skedaddles from the kitchen to do their own thing.

Since being married I have worked on the 21 day fix a few times, but after the first week every single time, my cycle began and I just stopped working out because of the pain, telling myself ok, let's work on the nutrition and although I have been good about this (I didn't say great), my weight came back. I look at me and say HOW can you let this happen to you? You have worked so hard and people are watching you! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??? Do I REALLY want to be healthy? Do I REALLY want to help others? OF COURSE I DO! SO, I need to get back in the saddle and not allow ANYTHING even painful cycles to get in the way of a better me! I want to help people around me live a better, healthier, fit more fun life!

So here goes!!!

I have been creating a meal plan that my husband and I have both been working on for each week and today I am making roasted butternut squash soup!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients

1 large butternut squash (about 5 lbs)
1 green apple, sliced and cored
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp ghee
3 cups chicken broth
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, olive oil, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp cumin. Mix together, coating the squash well. Spread out on a rimmed baking sheet.
Next, in the same bowl that the butternut squash was in, toss the apple slices, onion, and carrots to coat with the remnants. Place on a second rimmed baking sheet and add both baking sheets to the oven. Roast for 35-40 minutes until soft, stirring once.
Heat up ghee over medium heat in a large pot on the stove. Add the roasted ingredients and then the chicken broth. Add 1 teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon and chili powder. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Using an immersion blender, combine the ingredients until smooth, or transfer to a blender to puree. Serve warm.