15 minute Dinner!

I just put together our dinner for tonight and it only took me 15 minutes!

• Fast
• Easy
• Only 5 Ingredients 
• All real food

Plus the leftovers from this dinner are amazing!!!

I had to stop making this dinner when I was dairy free, but now that I'm back eating cheese again I'm good to go!

15 Minute Enchilada Bake

Ingredients

1 pound Grass Fed Ground beef
Plain Greek Yogurt
Homemade Salsa (or any kind you have on hand)
Grated White Cheddar cheese (because orange has dye in it and that's nasty)
Whole wheat wraps

Brown the Ground beef in a large pan.
Once browned, add in about a cup to cup and a half of salsa until it's pretty saucy.

Now add a layer of your salsa and ground beef mixture to the bottom of a large pie dish or casserole dish.  Next add a whole wheat tortilla and press it down.  Add a layer of Salsa and Beef to the top of the tortilla and add a few dobbs of Greek Yogurt and sprinkle with cheese. Repeat on the next layer and then again for the top!

Done!

I wrapped mine up and put it in the fridge to reheat for tonight's dinner.  But you could always heat it up right away too!

Easy and YUM!

Day 22 - 30 days of cleaning challenge

Today's Assignment is:

• Surface Clean Bedrooms
• One load of laundry

Fraser is sleeping in the bedroom right now so I'll have to wait until he is up to do this assignment!  But I wanted to post today's assignment just in case anyone else might be doing the challenge along with me!

Today is Gord's day off so we are doing a house clean and probably more Gardening! Plus I've gotta fit my workout into the morning before we take Asher to preschool! I've already done my one load of laundry but will probably do an extra load or two today :)  

Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful sunny day!  

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mothers Day!

This morning I got to sleep in.... sort of and then I came out of the bedroom to coffee and breakfast made for me.  After Breakfast I then shipped Asher and Gord off to do their Lacrosse team photos for 9am!

I'll be heading out shortly with my momma to take her for a coffee and walk around the garden centre!  It's the perfect day for it too.

I've already done my Assignment for Day 21 of the 30 day cleaning challenge which was:

• Surface clean the bathrooms
• One Load of Laundry

After Fraser's messy Breakfast I gave him a bath this morning and now he is napping!!  So I had to tidy up the bathroom anyways!  Love when the assignments match what is needed for that day.

Some day's life as a mom is wonderful and you feel thankful for your life and all the blessings you have.  But all Mother's have difficult days too.  Some day's the house is a mess and the kids are driving me crazy and I can't seem to get anything accomplished, but I know that the good days outshine the bad and know that our kids love us no matter what kind of day we are having!

It's so important that we take time for our selves whether it's 30 minutes to workout each day so you can feel energized and ready for the day, or a coffee date with a friend to get away and just be an adult for a while.  It's important to take time for ourselves.

I personally find that when I've made the time to workout in the morning I have more patience and energy to play with my boys throughout the day.

I hope each and every momma enjoys some time with their kids today but also a little me time as well!

Enjoy this beautiful day!

Day 18 & 19 - 30 Day Cleaning Challenge

Ok I admit it.... I've been enjoying my kids way too much and enjoying the sunshine and the opportunity to garden and be outside..... and I haven't done my jobs!  I mean I've kept the house clean and tidy but as for my last two assignments I've failed miserably!

Today was Mother's day lunch with Asher at his preschool and then we got home and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon so I took my boys outside to play and enjoy the day!  And then after dinner I went outside and gardened and caught up on yard work for two glorious hours!  Could I have done yesterdays assignment of cleaning all the remotes and light switches.... sure.  Could I have cleaned out the fridge and organized the cupboards tonight instead of baking my family a fresh batch of rhubarb muffins using rhubarb from the garden.... I guess!  But you know what?  I've had a great day and i'm sure the rain will return in a day or two and I'll catch up on those two assignments I skipped!  

Plus tomorrow's Assignment is:

- Surface Clean the living room and Kitchen

And I've already done that today.... so let's call it even and I'll do those missed assignments tomorrow K!

Check out a few highlights of my week!

The boys at strong start circle time :)

Mother's Day lunch with Asher

Fraser watching the bubbles 

Asher and Lila doing side walk paint!

Fraser in the swing! 

Week 3 - 10 weeks of Real food Mini Pledges

As week 2 comes to a close it's time to introduce the next mini pledge!  

Week 3 - Real Beverages
Beverages will be limited to coffee, tea, water, and milk (only naturally sweetened with a little honey or 100% pure maple syrup). One cup of juice will be allowed throughout the week, and wine (preferably red) will be allowed in moderation (an average of one drink per day). 

This might be of the more difficult pledges, but I realize that different things will be difficult for different people (depending on what your vices are!). So as you consider this next pledge please keep in mind that it is only for one week. I'll be giving up my weekly Starbucks tazo chai for this week which is my one vice and I know you can do this too! So here goes nothing… 

As you can see this means no Splenda (or sugar) in your coffee and it also means no pop. Can you (and your family) do it for seven days?

Sweetener Choices: The moral of the story is that all sweeteners (sugar, honey, maple syrup, raw sugar, brown sugar, etc.) are high in calories and low in nutrients. The artificial sweeteners that have no calories are just chemically created imitations invented in a lab somewhere…how’s that for appetizing? So no matter what kind of sweetener one uses we hope that it is, first of all, not an imitation and second of all, used in moderation. For this pledge we ask that you stick to honey and/or 100% pure maple syrup for your beverages for two reasons

1. They are both (mostly) made in nature and slightly higher in nutrients than other sweeteners like refined white sugar.
2. It is hard to find highly processed foods or beverages that have been sweetened with honey or maple syrup, and if you sweeten items yourself chances are you will put in a lot less than the factory. In our opinion sugar is way overdone in our society so while you can still have sugar in your food during this pledge we hope you can commit to at least keeping it out of your beverages (baby steps!).

Please note: Honey and pure maple syrup are more concentrated sweeteners than white sugar so you can use a little less.

Juice Restriction: Just like the sweeteners mentioned above natural fruit juice contains a concentrated amount of (natural) sugars, which again should be used in moderation. And while 100% natural fruit juice offers a great deal of nutrients and is highly recommended over a soda, it is not nearly as nutritious as eating the natural, raw, whole fruit itself. There is certainly nothing “wrong” with drinking fruit juice (as long as it is 100% real fruit juice and preferably organic), but we believe it is best used in moderation. Try displacing some cups of juice with something else like water, which most of us can never seem to get enough of.

Moderate Wine Consumption: In his book Michael Pollan suggests, “Have a glass of wine with dinner”  But Pollan does go on to say, “Drinking a little every day is better than drinking a lot on the weekends”. He also says “alcohol of any kind appears to reduce the risk of heart disease, but the polyphenols in red wine appear to have unique protective qualities.” So let’s take to heart Pollan’s research showing “abundant scientific evidence for the health benefits of alcohol” and not be afraid to enjoy a glass of red wine (in moderation!) with dinner this week.

Here are some beverage alternatives to consider during this pledge since most people like to cure one addiction with another…

• Try a  naturally sweetened latte or coffee
• Squeeze a little lemon in your water
• Eat a few juicy grapes or oranges to help quench your thirst with something naturally sweet
• Try offering your kids some naturally cold or hot chocolate milk
• Mix a half a cup of juice with some water to help stretch your juice consumption throughout the week
• Or just put a splash of juice in your water to add some flavor and make it last the whole week 

If you are addicted to Pop just think how much money you will save if you give it up since water (a far superior alternative) is free! My husband used to love pop and we would purchase a flat of it from the Superstore quite often!  Once we started eating only Real food we gave up pop completely and we only occasionally get a natural ginger ale from phillips brewing company!  In fact a few weekends ago while camping he asked me to purchase some Cola for him to have with his rye over the weekend and it felt very strange to be purchasing Coca Cola actually!  He didn't end up using the whole thing and came home with two full bottles of it. On his own he dumped the rest of it out when we got back!  I was floored but proud!

Day 16 - 30 Day Cleaning Challenge - Deep Clean the bathroom

Today's Assignment was:

• Deep Clean the Bathroom 
• One Load of Laundry

I assigned my hubby to this assignment today!  Have to delegate sometimes right?!?!

After we got both kids into bed I snapped the before pictures and he cleaned while I did my power hour.  Then when he was done I took the after photos!  Gotta love that!

Here are the before shots!!

After photos:

He did good!  Telling me right now that he even dusted my orchid!  Nice guy LOL

I'm just happy I didn't have to clean up the pee on the floor this week!  Woot!!

Tomorrow's assignment is:

• Clean all door knobs, phones, remotes, switch plates, banisters etc.  
• One load of laundry

I like this assignment!  

Day 15 - 30 Days of Cleaning - Surface Clean Living room and Kitchen

Today's Assignment was:

• Surface clean living room and kitchen 
• one load of laundry

Got it done this afternoon after we came home from Strong start and had lunch!  I'm trying to gert Fraser to skip his morning nap and hopefully take an extra long one around 12 noon.  He skipped his morning nap just fine and was passed out in the car on the way home before I even left the school parking lot, however he still only slept for 30 minutes!  I could tell though that he hadn't slept long enough and was ready for a second nap around 2pm.  While he was napping I quickly did my surface clean!

Kitchen before:

Water running to wash bottles.

After photos of the Kitchen:

Can't put my 21 day fix containers away, using them too much!

Before of the Living room/Play area

After:

And the laundry basket ready to go down stairs for the last part of the assignment!

Fraser playing with the toys I left out!

Tomorrow's Assignment is:  

• Deep clean bathroom (inside drawers, inside trash cans, mirror, mop, tub)
• One load of laundry