Recipe Time!

This is a little bit random, but I thought I'd share an easy recipe with you guys that I've made several times in the past, but put back in the rotation this week. I got this recipe from Mama Laughlin's blog a long time ago and Daniel and I both enjoy it.

Picture courtesy of Plain Chicken

Ingredients:
1 can reduced fat crescent rolls
1/2 lb. extra lean ground beef or turkey
1 can Original Rotel, drained
1 package Taco Seasoning
1 6 oz. container Fage 0% plain greek yogurt 
1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 bag Baked Doritos Nacho Cheese chips, crushed

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

In a large skillet, brown ground beef and drain off fat.
Add in taco seasoning and Rotel. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Press crescent rolls in the bottom of a 9x13 greased pan.
Press seams to seal. Top crescent rolls with meat mixture, then spread greek yogurt over meat. Top with shredded cheese and crushed Doritos.
Bake for 30 minutes.

This makes 8 servings which comes to 320 calories per serving.

Enjoy!

What I Ate Wednesday!

Hi Friends!

I was inspired by the lovely Anna Saccone-Joly to do a just for fun post today. Anna has done a series of "What I Ate Wednesday" posts and I always enjoy reading those. Maybe it is the foodie in me, but I really like meal/food pictures and articles! So, here is my first "What I Ate Wednesday" post (please excuse the low quality pictures - I forgot my camera so I was using my iPod).

Breakfast

I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast, but I had a bowl of oatmeal with 1/2 banana and a dash of cinnamon. I also had a cup of coffee with some Cafe Mocha creamer. Yum!

Lunch

For lunch I had a poppy seed roll with deli-style tuna and a slice of mozzarella cheese. I also had a side of baby carrots and an apple. Daniel and I had lunch together outside and the weather was beautiful! I'm so glad the temperatures are finally starting to drop.. it has been a HOT summer!

Afternoon Snack

So, you will probably laugh at me for this, but I had a Stonyfield YoBaby yogurt. Yes, these are designed for babies 6+ months! haha! Here's why I chose baby yogurt- they are smaller than regular yogurt cups (which are typically too much for me), they are organic, and they have lots of active cultures in them. I will say that they were kind of "goopy" which I guess makes sense.. maybe more of a baby food consistency? And they didn't taste very sweet at all, but there was 12g of sugar I think. That is way too much sugar! 

Dinner

For dinner we had spaghetti, garlic bread, and broccoli. The spaghetti sauce is seriously the easiest thing in the world to make and it tastes so good! We always get compliments on it whenever we make this sauce. Let me know in the comments below if anyone wants the recipe :) Since I wanted some garlic bread I only had like 5 noodles - haha! I always feel like I need at least a few noodles to mix with the sauce. 

Dessert

For dessert I had a cup of decaf black coffee and 3 Elf Fudge cookies :) I started out with just 2 cookies, but ended up eating a third.. they are just too yummy!

Besides that I drank a good bit of water throughout the day. And that's it!

What did you eat today? :)

February Challenge (2/7)

Well, since I have a bit of time I thought I'd continue with the February Challenge. Today's challenge is family and how this relates to honoring why you are dedicated to your health.

I'd say family (past, present, and future) is a primary motivator for me. In my past my parents taught me the importance of eating healthy, well-balanced meals. With our lunches my mom always made sure we had a fruit/veggie of some sort and most of our meals always represented a balanced diet. We grew up eating whole grain bread and drinking skim milk- these were just what we were raised on so I've always liked the taste of whole grain foods.

In the present I've found that my family is a motivation for me to be healthy. I want to be able to live a healthy life on this earth and be here for my husband and all of our family. Because I care about my loved ones I feel the importance of caring for my own health as well since this will directly affect them.

As this relates to the future I'd like to be in good health for my future children! I want to stay healthy during any pregnancies and want to be healthy and active enough to be there to care for and play with my future kids. I want to be sure that the things I teach our children about food are good things. I don't want to teach them bad habits (such as emotional eating) and I want them to learn how to eat healthy, well-balanced meals. My parents gave me a great gift by teaching me those things and I want to be sure to pass that along to my future kids.

What about you? How does your family inspire you to take care of your health?

Love,
Laura

Simplicity

I came across this challenge on another blog and I'm not sure that I'll be able to devote time to post about one of these every day, but I thought it might be a fun challenge for February.

Today's challenge is Simplicity (as it relates to honoring why you are dedicated to your health). Well, today's act of simplicity for me has to be my plans for eating healthy this evening. My sweet Daniel is going to help at the Brother Bryan ministry tonight so I'll be on my own for a bit. I've reserved a copy of Bringing Up Baby to watch and I've got some rotisserie chicken, green beans, and a honey biscuit with my name on it. I've found that keeping a weekly meal menu (something I learned from my mom) really helps me stay on track for cooking meals every night. I also know that if a recipe involves too many ingredients (or obscure/hard to find ingredients) I'm probably not going to make it. Simplicity and organization are key for me, personally, to stay on track with not only cooking, but also for eating right.

Do you have any tips on living/eating simply?

Happy Wednesday!

Love,
Laura