March 12 of 12...

So, I read Susan's reminder email before I went to bed, got my camera ready and then forgot by the time I woke up. Ahhhhh yes. I am a dingbat. No worries though...I remembered by the time I got to school. Not a very eventful day really, but hey - it was Friday! That makes it pretty good no matter what.
Well, here we go...

I brought my coffee maker in to school and the English teacher and I can have coffee within reach whenever we want it. I just didn't feel like making that walk to the kitchen just for coffee...plus I like mine just so... Oh. Can't forget my sugar-free creamer. It helps to start the day this way...trust me.

This is my little man Marco with two of his friends. They had a dinosaur day at daycare and learned about dinosaurs and had special food, etc. He wore his dinosaur p.j.'s 'cause that's all he had that had a dinosaur on it. Cutie.

One of my new favorite things. Bought these beautiful sweet peppers at Costco. My kids love them too. I brought these to snack on at lunch. Yummy and pretty.

Here's my Hannah trying to sneak by me. She saw me with the camera and tried to hurry by...oh, no you don't! Say cheese!!

This is our school and where I come to teach every day. I love it.

The sky was a perfect blue and spring was definitely in the air. Fall is my favorite, but I can't complain about this at all!

This is the back of my classroom. Just changed this back board to Civil War. I am teaching the Civil War to two of my classes right now. I still get choked up whenever I talk about Lee surrendering to Grant and how they both treated each other with such dignity and respect. Is that corny that I get emotional over that? Alas... I can not help it. *sigh*

This arrived in the mail today. I really don't have anymore subscriptions these days, but a girl in our church was doing a fund-raiser thing and I didn't want to pay for candy. I do enjoy this magazine though. My favorite magazine is Artful Blogging and Where Women Create. Of course, they are more like books. They come out every 3 months, I believe. So inspiring!

Towels to fold...not as inspiring, but I don't mind it.

Marco and Naomi having an after school snack and playing one of their favorite things. Naomi received this special quilt that was made by a friend of my sister. The kids play "I spy" with it.

I was at a loss as to what to make for dinner. I had forgotten to take any meat out and my husband was about to just throw in the towel and order pizza. I remembered that I had a bag of those frozen chicken tenderloins from Costco (love that place!) and decided to make a mushroom cream sauce for it and do some steamed brussel sprouts on the side. YUM.

Marco made a redbox run and we ended the evening watching Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. It was cute...made me hungry though.

And that's it folks! Another month gone by. Do you participate in the 12 of 12? If so, let me know in the comments section!

Warning...these pictures may make you hungry...

A lot of you have asked me about my change in eating and cooking habits. I've really enjoyed this new way of eating. The thing that has helped me the most is that my husband and my kids are all on board. It takes a lot of planning and making sure that the fridge is stocked, but it's well worth it.
We haven't written off sugar and all things carb-filled forever, but for me - it is the better choice. It is still hard, but I've learned that by refraining from sugar and carbs, I have cut out things like chips, ice-cream, starchy potatoes, breads, fried and battered foods, milk shakes, most fast food, etc. I know. Sounds boring, right? It's been a challenge, but so far - so good. There have been a few times (like the Valentine's Banquet) where I've gone ahead and eaten dessert and starches, but it's not all day every day like it was before.
Here are some of the meals that I've served my family in the last few weeks, along with the ones you saw in my other recent post. It's been about a month and we've all lost at least 10 lbs. each, but my hubby has lost about 16 lbs! We've also been exercising regularly too!
Here we go...

I needed a little "comfort" food here so I made a seasoned ground beef that I usually serve on mashed potatoes, but this time I served it on the mashed cauliflower. My kids really love it!


Sauteed and seasoned asparagus

Omelettes are good any time of the day. Here is one with bacon, spinach, mushroom and cheddar jack cheese.

This one is sans mushroom, but with added sausage.

This was a quick meal that I made one evening with stir-fry chicken, pasilla chilies and mushrooms. Very good - lots of flavor.

This was a really great meal. We had shrimp scampi and mussels as a side with broiled salmon and broccoli. It was delish! It would've cost us so much to go out and have this at a restaurant.

Butter and garlic shrimp....

...lots of broccoli...splash of pepper jack cheese on top...

Broiled salmon...just right...

...and then there's days that I am in a super big hurry and I've got to just pick up a rotisserie chicken and sautee some green beans and go! Quick...but still healthy. No more just pullin' in to 'ole Jack in the Box for a quick meal.

Let me know if you have any questions!

12 of 12 for February...

This month's 12 of 12 fell on a fun day. We were busy celebrating Valentine's Day at school and also had a Valentine's Banquet for our church. Here are some pics of my day...

These were a sampling of the decorations I made for our banquet. The 'cooty catcher' candy dishes were really fun to make. You could do those in any color for any theme! The vase is filled with red hot candies...

This is what I saw when I got in the car to go to school this morning. Marco is great about special days. He gave me a gift card for the Bare Escentuals store and a bottle of Still by Jennifer Lopez (perfume). I'm a lucky girl! (blessed)

These were also in each of the kids' spots...they get something too!

Not a great shot, but this is the little mailbox my Taryn asked me to make for her Valentine Buddy exchange at school. The girl's name is Allie. Taryn filled it with Allie's favorite candies.

Here's little Naomi (and class mate Sydney) enjoying her first Valentine's Day party at school.

This is my new favorite indulgence. I've tried to not drink soda at all, but when I do - this is it now. Remember the commercial, "Sugar-free Dr. Pepper, tastes fattening but it's not..." Yeah, it really does taste that good! =]

One of my sweet students brought me this lovely candle...made my day!

Another student gave me this beautiful tulip. So beautiful!

Had to rush home and get ready for the banquet. We have had it at the same restaurant for a few years now and really like it. Great food and fun.

Here are some of the things I made..."Set Your Heart In Order" was the theme.

I had steak (medium rare), veggies and loaded mashed potatoes. Yes, I did eat the potatoes!!

Oh....and did I mention the pie? Yeah. Ate all of that too. =]
Well, that was it...It was a great night. Lots of good food, fun games and a great challenge by Marco. I went home and went straight to bed. Great day!

Keeping TRUE...

So, one area that I have been wanting to stay TRUE about is my health. I really got it together towards the end of 2009. Lost enough to start feeling like it was something that I could at least work on - that it IS possible to start losing weight and moving and feeling good again.
It's no secret that I like to eat. I am not even afraid to say it. I do love food, I love cooking, I love feeding others and sharing from my kitchen...but in being TRUE... I also know that I love looking and feeling good more than I love food.
I've been reading a lot about the Paleo or Primal way of eating. Some people think that it's the same as Atkins, but it really isn't. It's so much more, but I am not going to get into all of that right now. Think of all the "bad stuff" we aren't indulging on anymore.
For this post, I just want to share some of the low-carb dinners I've had recently. My lunches and breakfasts have been amazing as well. I KNOW that this is healthier. I am not afraid of meat. I have been eating more vegetables than I have in a long time...and a beautiful variety at that! Fruit? We love fruit! I don't eat as many grapes in one sitting, but we have them. Oh, by the way...my hubby and my two oldest girls are in it with me as well. I have totally re-vamped our pantry.
Well, let's take a look at some of the beef dishes...

Here is some roast beef that was cooked in the crock pot, with steamed cabbage and instead of mashed POTATOES...mashed CAULIFLOWER!!! Yes! Everybody (including the kids) loved it. Plenty of beef broth or "au jus" as gravy....big hit.

Instead of carne asada tacos, we had carne asada lettuce wraps. Side of avocado for those that care to have it, romaine lettuce and monterey jack cheese. Salsa verde or green salsa to top!

There was a great sale at the market on good steak (I rarely buy it 'cause it's too much for a family of 6)....anyway, I had also purchased a little bit of mussels and a bag of raw frozen shrimp as a "go to". Here we have grilled steak (seasoned perfectly), garlic butter shrimp scampi and some mussels steamed in white wine/garlic/pesto sauce. We ate those like an appetizer. Oh, and the sauteed zucchini was to die for!

The two older girls were out the night I served this. I had two of the steaks left and had Marco grill them. He opted out of the brussel sprouts and had a big salad, but after tasting one of these....yeah. He was all in my business.

Grilled steak with steamed brussel sprouts with butter and shredded cheese. LOVED this!!

Well, maybe I will post some chicken meals soon and then fish...sounds good, eh? Along with exercising, we are seeing the pounds drop...not melt away....we are working hard at this, but I am really hoping to keep it real. You know how I do, I want to be TRUE! =]

January 12 of 12...the first for 2010!

Well, I am about two weeks into the year 2010 and I have really thought about being TRUE and keeping it real!
One of my favorite memes is the 12 of 12 meme. You take pictures all day on the 12th of each month and then you choose 12 to share with us on your blog, facebook, etc. If you can do this through the year, you will have a wonderful year at a glance to look back on.
Well, here we go - not really exciting, but it was my day!

I turned the t.v. on (in my room) so that Naomi and Marco can hear the music of whatever is playing at the time. It has helped them to wake up with a better attitude. =] Here they are watching "Imagination Movers".

Oops...an hour later my alarm is still going off. It doesn't matter that I had my alarm set, I forgot to put the sound on! Duh. Thankfully, I woke up before I need to anyway.

Taryn should've ironed the night before, but she had her uniform in the dryer still... Come on Taryn! Careful with the steam though!

This is my room and I am dying to get some paint on these walls. Even if you don't have time to do your whole room, you should make your bed (at least) - that way you feel like something is in order!

This is a view of our gym wall from the upstairs windows at school. Some boys, along with coach, painted this up here. I love it!

The seniors went on a quick field trip to Starbucks. One of them brought me this very yummy, sugar-free Passion Tea. It was so good.

This is my classroom. I am forever trying to keep this window clean of all the nose smudges...haha. I will be decorating for Valentine's (February) on the 14th of January.

I actually left school before 5 p.m. today! As I drove out of the parking lot I realized that I had to come back and take a picture of the temperature on the marquis. How's that for January? =]

Here is my silly girl. She is such a great help to me...she's getting ready for volleyball tryouts. Ugh. I hate waiting and waiting to find out.

This is as close as we're getting to my self-portrait today. I dressed out and had a great time with the girls in P.E. class with the girls. My shins were burning from the run though. Ugh. Must.get.back.in.shape.

I took this picture when I pulled into my driveway. The sky really has been beautiful lately!

Here are the two "buddies" in the house. Hannah bought them these little mini Dreyers ice-creams. They were in heaven.

Well...I think I started to fade after the ice-cream was passed around. I was grading papers until I couldn't see straight.

How was your day?