Beach Body's Black Friday sale....

Hey friends.... holy cow, it's been a while. Sorry about that! Life just kinda took over & got in the way. I missed you all!! ;) 

But I'm back & better than ever. And.... I have the most exciting news to tell you about.... 
Beach Body is having their Black Friday sale on a bunch of their products!! Merry Christmas to us... right? 

Take advantage of this amazing sale and Give the Gift of Health this holiday season!! 

This is the prefect time to try out a program you have been wondering about, and to stock up on gifts for yourself and others!!  These programs would make great stocking stuffers, or secret santa gifts, and not break the bank!! Plus... you get me as your personal Beach Body coach.... now really, who doesn't want me as your cheerleader for a Christmas present? ;) But, you had better hurry... things are already starting to sell out!! The sale goes from November 23rd - 30th.

If you have questions about any of these programs, or which ones would be the right fit for you or a friend, feel free to message me, here, on FB and I am more than willing to help you out. I am excited to help you get started on your fitness journey!! 

Click here to get all the info on this amazing sale!! 

Clean out the Pantry soup, or as I sometimes call it "garbage soup"

Hey friends... sorry this post is a few days late.. I've been on vacation & didn't get back until Tuesday. So, there was no time for blogging recipes! I didn't even cook for 6 days... it was AWESOME!!

But normal life had to resume... I had to come home, and I had to start cooking again. Today's recipe is actually the meal I made on my first day home. It's called Clean out the Pantry Soup, or I sometimes call it "Garbage Soup".  Although the nick name "Garbage Soup" is a little hard to sell to your kids when it comes to getting them to eat healthy! Here is the link to the actual recipe, and the site that I got if off of.

It's so fast and easy to make. You literally take all the extra bags or containers of veggies in your freezer or fridge & throw it all in the crock pot with some chicken broth, beans, and corn. Then you cook it all day in the crockpot. It's a meal that I don't have to go out an purchase anything at the store to use to make it & it cleans out my fridge and freezer. It uses up stuff that you know is destined to be thrown away in another month or two!

I needed something on this day that I could literally throw a bunch of unprepared stuff into a crockpot & have it cook all day & turn out good. This recipe is my "go to" recipe for days like this. It is always different & it always turns out so good. I have never had this soup turn out bad. This time I used green beans, brussel sprouts, carrots, onions, and celery.

It's full of veggies & stuff that your body loves. It was a perfect "rest my body" meal after eating out and crappy for 6 days.  And... it's soup, so it's already good for your soul & makes you smile. It was perfect for this day, because it was totally raining & cold outside!

So go ahead and give it a try one day & let me know what you think! :)

Oven Roasted Chicken

Happy Healthy recipe Tuesday everyone... Today's Recipe is Oven Roasted Chicken.

So this recipe I got from my mom... and it is sooooo good. It's for a whole chicken, and the seasonings are amazing & the chicken always comes out so tender & juicy. Even for someone like me... who over cooks any type of meet I try to cook & it always comes out really dry and boring. But not this recipe... it has ALWAYS turned out perfect!!

I have step by step pictures of this one.... some of them are gross looking so this is your warning... there will be pictures of raw, cut up chicken in this blog post.... But if you can get past raw, dead chicken.. you will have an awesome meal!! :)

Step #1 - Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Take your whole chicken, rinse it off and pat it dry. Place chicken on a cutting board, and with a good pair of Kitchen sheers, cut down both sides of the back bone and remove. 

Then take a knife and cut it the rest of the way in half!

Then... season evenly, on both sides with all of your seasoning.  Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet and place chicken skin side down in the pan, brown for about 5 minutes. 

 Once chicken is browned, turn over and place in roasting pan & put it in the oven.  Bake for 30 - 45 minutes, or until the bird has reached 165 degrees.

Then they come out looking like this & smelling soooooo yummy!! 

This recipe is the best for baking up a bunch of chicken for either a family dinner, or to cut up, shred, and freeze, and make other dinners with. I typically will cook up 2 whole chickens at a time so I have enough for dinner that night & some to save for later. I love having tasty, moist chicken already cooked up and ready to go for a list minute dinner like BBQ chicken sandwiches, or yummy home made chicken noodle soup when you are sick. 

Here is the actual recipe...

Oven Roasted Chicken

4lb whole chicken
1 T Kosher salt
1 t Garlic powder
1/2 T Dried Thyme
1/2 T Ground Black Pepper
olive oil

Heat grill, or oven to 425 degrees. Take your whole chicken, rinse it off and pat it dry. Place chicken on a cutting board, and with a good pair of Kitchen sheers, cut down both sides of the back bone and remove. In a small bowl, mix together the seasonings and rub evenly all over the bird. In a large cast iron skillet, heat a small amount of olive oil over medium hight heat. Once the oil has been heated place chicken skin side down in the pan, brown for about 5 minutes. Once chicken is browned, turn over and place in roasting pan & put it in the oven.  Bake for 30 - 45 minutes, or until the bird has reached 165 degrees.

Ham and Cheese braid

Yay... it's new recipe Tuesday... Today's recipe is a Ham and Cheese braid. Here is the link for this recipe. 

So you know how a few weeks ago I mentioned that we had to put off our Easter Sunday dinner because we were all sick? Well, we ended up having our Easter dinner the Sunday after. We had everyone over and had so much fun.

We had ham... and it was so good. Even though we gave a bunch of it away to family, we still had a ton of it left. There are only so many days that you can eat the same leftovers. So I had to come up with a new way to eat our leftovers. I hopped on Pinterest & this is where I found this recipe.

It looked a little weird... and I wasn't sure about the Honey Mustard, but I had all the ingredients already for this recipe. So I just went for it. One little change I made, was that I used my home made, whole wheat pizza crust recipe instead of using the canned crescent roll dough it suggests. Here is the link to that recipe.

It was a HUGE hit! Everyone loved it... even my crazy picky 5 year old... the sounds of "yum" actually came out of his mouth after he was forced to take his first bite. :)

This is what my leftovers looked like after everyone was done....

I think this picture speaks for it's self! :) So, next holiday, if you cook a ham, this is the perfect leftover recipe for the whole family! :)

Whole Wheat pizza curst

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust recipe

This pizza crust recipe is so fast and easy to throw together. It's also pretty healthy as far as pizza crust goes. We use this recipe a lot for several different things. Here is that recipe...

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

1 package of Yeast

1 cup of warm water

1/2 t. salt

2 t. olive oil

2 - 2 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water, add salt and olive oil, then mix. Slowly add flour until dough is lightly sticky. Let rise about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough and place on pizza stone. Add toppings, and cook in oven for about 12 minutes. 

Friday Donut Day

Hey friends, guess what today is... it's Friday Donut Day again!!  What kind of donut are you going to have? I am thinking I'm going to have to skip my donut again this week. (major sad face going on here...)  I'm going on vacation in less than 2 weeks and I really want to look my best. So... I'm going to summon all my will power and try and stay away from donuts until I am actually on vacation! :) So... I want someone to eat a donut for me & Jennifer today. Make sure to send good vibes our way! :)

Today I am sponsoring a great woman by the name of Jennifer Roeling. Here is a picture of her and her cute family.

She is the cousin of a very good friend of mine and she needs our help. I have been in contact with her, and she has emailed me her story. So I'm going to go ahead and post what she has written....

"I'm 36 years old. I'm happily married to my husband Richard, we'll be married 8 years this year. We have 3 beautiful kids, 2 girls and 1 boy...Lindsay is 15, Landen is 8 & Taylor is 6. I'm a stay at home Mom and my husband is a hard working man for all of us. I've dealt with a lot of medical problems and chronic pain after my last baby. It's always been one thing after another I feel like I never get a break from pain issues. It's hard dealing with so much pain and trying to take care of my kids, so I've had to have so much help with kids the last couple years. It's one of my struggles as a mother. I hope they grow up knowing I did everything I could for them and still try everyday, I hope they know how much I love them and pray everyday that I can be a fun active mom for them and take care of them by myself like I use to.. My biggest struggle of all is not being a normal mom everyday. <3

About 4 years ago I started experiencing knee pain in both knees, my left knee has always been worse then my right. I went and saw a few Doctor's for this pain they have done so many X-Rays and I always got the same answer, that they didn't see anything wrong and they just wanted me to do to physical therapy. I did what they wanted me to and it never helped. There's been so many times that I've fallen down because my knees would get week, there's been so many times that I couldn't walk on my own, if I would hold my kids it made me so week in the knees and felt like they were going to collapse on me. I couldn't understand why the Doctor's I would see didn't know what was wrong with my knees.  I decided to talk to my new Doctor that is my pain management Doctor for my chronic pain. I told him how bad my left knee was and I haven't had answers for years. He decided to do an MRI, something that none of the other Dr's did. In November 2014, I got my follow up after the MRI on my left knee, I thought it was going to be like all the other results I've gotten, but nope it wasn't. I found out that my femur bone was dying/deteriorating because of bad blood flow. It was the worst day of my life I was so devastated, I cried & my husband cried. My family and my best friend also cried and had a hard time with the news. My Dr sent me to see a bone specialist and she told us that I have AVN-Avasculiar Necrosis it means I don't have blood flow at all in the femur bone, and it's caused by smoking. I also found out that the issues with my femur bone is not connected to my knee pain and we still don't know what's causing the knee pain. Which is really frustrating not knowing what's going on. We still had to run a bunch of tests. It's scary that AVN has no symptoms. If it wasn't for my knee pain I would have never known about the AVN, or that I needed to quit smoking. 

In February I found out the hard way that I couldn't walk on my own because my knee were hurting so bad. So I called my pain Dr to get me in as an urgent visit and they got me in the next day and he wanted to repeat the MRI on my left knee to see if the AVN has progressed at all. He also wanted to do an MRI on the right knee. I got in right away and back to my Drs 3 days later. He told me that the left femur bone has progressed rather quickly. When I first found out about my femur bone on the left the AVN was at 7.4% and now it's already at a 8.8% and that I also have AVN in the right femur bone. The Dr told me that we need to do a Stem Cell Implant, which is a bone marrow transplant. They'll take bone marrow from my hip and put it in my femur bones to get the blood circulating again so they'll stop dying off. If it reaches my knee joint I can lose my legs so it needs to be done asap. This procedure is not covered by any health insurance and all together it'll cost $10,100.00. To hear that was heart breaking and it scared me to death. My depression got worse, and my husband also got really depressed. The next challenge was quitting smoking and It's been the hardest thing I've ever done. It's been a huge challenge in my life. Ever since we found out how bad it is we've been trying every way we can to raise money. I posted about having a fundraiser yard sale and I was amazed by how many people stopped by to donate stuff for my yard sale and it was a great success. I'm so very blessed to have so many people in my life that want to help me. Its all been a huge challenge for me, but I'm hopeful and trying my best to stay positive."

Jennifer also want's her story to be about smoking awareness. She encourages everyone who is currently smoking, to seek help for their addiction. 

Jennfer has an account set up through Cypress Credit Union that you can donate to, just go in and tell them you want to donate to the "donate to Jennifer Roeling" fund. Also she has a go fund me account, the link for that is here. 

If there is any way you would be able to donate at all to help save Jennifer's legs, it really would be a huge blessing. Even a few dollars is better than nothing. Little amounts can add up fast. 

Thank you for taking the time to read Jennifer's story! I hope everyone has a great weekend!! 

Hand sewing your quilt binding

To hand sew or machine sew your binding onto your quilt... that is the question of the day.  Now I am sure some of you normal people are thinking "why would you ever hand sew anything when you can just use a machine and get it done a lot faster." But then there are us crazies out in the world who hand sew all of our bindings onto our quilts.

(Okay... ignore my scary looking "toe thumb"!! Also yes, that is my steering wheel in my car. And no..  I wasn't driving when I took this picture. When you take the time to hand sew your bindings, you just have to fit that in whenever and wherever... like when you are waiting to pick up your 10 year old from her piano lesson. Don't you just love that fabric???) 

I don't know what it is, but I can't handle NOT hand sewing a binding onto a quilt. It's like a using a machine for this last step & finishing up the quilt is cheating or something. Or like it doesn't mean as much if you don't leave a little piece of yourself on that quilt. I know that spending hours cutting and sewing the whole quilt top all together is a little like leaving our "mark" on the world, but actually doing that last little bit by hand just makes the quilt feel complete & makes the world a better place! :)

I feel a little like the character "Frank Navasky" played by Greg Kinnear in the movie "You've Got Mail". You know how he's obsessed with type writers & and always freaking out about how the computer is going to ruin all of society... I'm a little like that about using a machine to sew your binding on. It's like using a sewing machine for everything is killing the past or something... I don't know... I am slightly crazy about sewing and fabric. :)  I just love the feel of the fabric on my fingers & cuddling up under my blanket while I am finishing it. We really do get to bond during this process! :)

But there is my 2 cents on sewing on your bindings! If you are in need of some binding advice, here is the tutorial that is my "go to" for bindings. I used to watch this all the time when I first started out & it was so helpful! :)

I am curious to know, how do you sew your bindings onto your quilts? And it's okay if you machine sew them..  we can still be friends! :)

Slow Cooker Cream of Chicken and Rice Soup

This weeks healthy recipe is Slow Cooker Cream of Chicken and Rice soup. Here is the link to that recipe.

I know I have been in a soup rut lately... but it's been chilly here in Utah on and off lately & I've been sick. So all I want to eat when I'm sick & it's cold outside is soup. But I am on the mend (I think...) and I promise my next recipe will NOT be soup!

I made a few changes to this recipe. First, I left out the corn starch & the milk at the end & it was actually really good with out them. The first time I made it, I left them out just by accident. I totally forgot to add them & didn't realize it until the next day.  So I have decided to always leave it out. It's healthier without them I think, and I have never missed them.  But if you want a creamier soup then you will definitely need to add them.  Second, I didn't chop up my chicken... I was slightly dis-organized and didn't think to take the chicken out of the freezer until I was reading the recipe and actually throwing everything into the crockpot to cook it. So I just stuck my chicken in frozen and shredded it right before I served it. Worked out great & cut down the prep time drastically! :)

This recipe is awesome for several reasons. First... it's total comfort food! It's the classic chicken and rice soup that you grew up eating when you were little and sick. It tastes so good & it really is good for your soul!!

Second awesome reason is, everything goes into the crockpot un-cooked, even the rice. And it just cooks all day.... hardly any prep. Just chopping up a few things & tossing everything into the crockpot and you are set for the day. Although the rice does use up most of the broth & I had to add 2 more cups of broth to get it to the right soup consistency before serving.

Third... everyone loved it!! Everyone had seconds!! Well, except for Carter... but that kid doesn't like anything but hotdogs & ham sandwiches.... he is the pickiest 5 year old on the planet!!  :)

This one is definitely one for the repeat recipe book.

Friday Donut Day

Today is Friday Donut Day... Yay!! Although... I will not be having a donut because I shared a HUGE cinnamon roll with my husband yesterday! It was so good, but so full of sugar... I'm amazed I didn't go into a sugar coma!! So no donuts for me today.... I have had enough sugary goodness to last me a few days...

Anyways... I am giving a shout out to Chick-Fil-A today. They are doing a fundraiser for the Month of April for the organization Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS). What this organization does is they help family members of fallen officers.  You need to just go up to the cashier when you order and tell them you are there for the fundraiser and want to contribute to it. It's as easy as that!!

This one hits close to home for many people, including many members of a small city in Utah called Eagle Mountain. I lived in Eagle Mountain for about 8 years and on January 30th, 2014, in that small city of Eagle Mountain an officer by the name of Cory Wride was shot and killed while checking on a car he thought was abandon on the side of the road. He was killed instantly.

It was a very sad day for the residents of Eagle Mountain and his death will be something that will never be forgotten. He died protecting all of us and that is something you can never forget or take for granted. His family has sacrificed so much for our freedom and safety & now here is another chance to give back to them.

The donations to Chick-fil-A will be going to the Wride family so that they can attend the National Police Week Memorial in Washington this year.

Please help us honor all the fallen officers and their families by heading to Chick-fil-A sometime this month and donating to this organization. And... if you see a Police Officer, stop them and thank them for their service!!

There are a few articles here & here where I have gotten most of my information from. I hope you all have a great weekend!! :)

Crock Pot Enchilada Soup

Sorry I flaked out on posting a recipe last week. It was spring break... I don't think I cooked anything at all! :) Anyways, This weeks recipe is Slow Cooker Enchilada Soup. Here is the link for that recipe.

Okay, here is a little sad story behind this meal. We actually had this meal for Easter dinner... I know, you are thinking what kind of a meal is that to have for dinner on Easter Sunday?!?!?!  But it was out of pure desperation.  Both my husband and I were so sick on Sunday there was no way we had the energy to cook the Ham, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls, and fresh green beans which was the menu for Easter dinner. Plus we would have had to clean the kitchen first, in order to be able to cook such an involved meal. So I hopped on pinterest & found this recipe.

 The best parts about this recipe were that it was a crock pot meal, I had all the ingredients for it on hand, it was super fast to throw together, AND..... everyone loved it!! I didn't have to fight with anyone to eat it. My kids all had seconds, and it felt like heaven on our sore throats!!! It made great leftovers for dinner on Monday night too. It was still just as good & everyone loved it just as much, and I didn't have to cook anything! :)

For this dinner I'm calling it a definite success, and one that we will be eating often I think. It was fast, easy, everyone liked it, and it didn't call for any weird ingredients. It doesn't get any better than that!! :)

Sticking to your goal no matter what....

Hey everyone, how was your Easter? I have been really sick all weekend long! Like chest hurting coughing, ears hurting, body aching sick.... NO BUENO!!! Not the best way to end spring break for my kids, and not the best way to spend Easter weekend either.

I woke up this morning still feeling like crap. I totally ran behind all morning and it made for a very interesting & memorable morning. (see my FB The Sew Fit Girl like page for this story!) I slept in & didn't get my workout in before my littles were all up and getting ready, so I had to do it after everyone was at school. 

I'm not gonna lie... I totally talked to myself all morning and gave myself a million excuses as to why I didn't need to work out today. The main reason being that I am sick & should just crawl back into bed and turn on the hallmark channel & rest.... That is pretty much the same thing as going to the Dr, right? 

*** totally getting off subject here, but I have this awful addiction to the Hallmark channel. I think that a pretty quilt, my bed, and the Hallmark channel can pretty much cure or fix anything!!***

But.. I was a SLUG all weekend long. I haven't felt good and I haven't done ANYTHING!!! Like not really even cooked for people, that kind of nothing. We have been having leftovers & frozen pizza for all of our meals. And I ate a TON of candy yesterday. Even though I kept the candy to a minimum this year, I still ate my whole bag of Lindt Truffles that I got from the Easter bunny. I was planning on that bag lasting me all week.... oops! :) (I have ZERO self control when I am sick)

So I just "womaned up" and did my workout. And you know what, I didn't die & it didn't make me feel any worse!! I just took it easy & did the 10 minute Ab Fix, nothing spectacular. But it worked, I got my workout done without dying, it didn't take that long, and I feel better for it.

I had this realization hit me today that no matter what.... I can still get my workout done. It doesn't have to be ideal circumstances!! It doesn't have to be this amazing workout, where I am sweating to death & I'm laying down so I don't pass out!! Not everything has to be perfect or going as planned to get it done. If that really was the case, I'm so dis-organized and scattered all the time I would never have time to workout. 

I worked out this morning in the clothes I slept in last night & with no shoes on because I didn't feel like trying to find them in the chaos of my house after being sick and doing nothing with it all weekend long. I didn't have to run to the gym, or even brush my teeth!! I just popped my workout DVD in & worked out in the middle of my chaos. 

*** totally off subject again, but I am just realizing that I didn't brush my teeth either this morning before I had to walk into my kids school to check them in because they were late... Crap!! My kids are going to be taken away from me one of these day...***

You can do this!! Working out every day is hard sometimes, it really is. I'm not going to sugar coat it for you or lie to you about it. But, it can be done. You don't have to look good while you are doing it, believe me, I post scary workout pics of myself on Facebook every day, and I'm 100% scary looking!  But I commit to doing it & I get it done!! Wether it's easy or hard, or if I'm having a good or a bad day. I just get it done & you can too. This is the same for any kind of goal that you have... be it fitness, or personal, or spiritual, or whatever.... find a way to make your goal fit into your life. Make time for it no matter what!!

Spring Break

Okay.... Sorry, I know I have been absent for about a week. But it's been spring break, and I've just had spring break brain. No one wants to focus or work... we just wanted to play. We took a little mini "staycation" and just headed about 1 1/2 hours down south to the Salt Lake area. Stayed in a hotel, went swimming constantly, visited our old favorite spots we used to go to all the time before we moved up north, we ate out a ton, and just enjoyed our little family for a few days!!

In the car & on our way!! YAY!!! 

Ready for bed at the Hotel. No matter what, if we are staying at a hotel my kids think it's the best vacation ever!! We could stay at a hotel in the same city we live in & my kids would think we were the greatest parents on the planet!! 

My girls excited and all ready for bed.... and no, no one got any sleep that night. Just too much hotel excitement for any kind of sleeping to occur!! 

We hit the dinosaur museum!! My kids love this place. Built our own dinosaur!!

Put together the dinosaur, magnet puzzles. My kiddos LOVE puzzles, especially my youngest. He could sit and do puzzles for hours. 

We did the whole wall of dinosaur bone puzzles!

And of course we had to get a picture in front of the giant shark that looks like it's going to eat you! :)

We went swimming ALL THE TIME...... Every morning first thing when the kids woke up, we went swimming.... 

In the afternoons when we headed back for a little break..... we went swimming.... If we weren't at a museum or doing something else fun.... we were swimming!! 

And then there was Target.... (sigh). I had to sneak away one night after my littles had fallen asleep and visit my old friend all by myself. I LOVE Target & there isn't a Target where I moved too! I know... you are all thinking "but how can you survive without Target?" I am wondering that myself still some days. But in situations such as these, we just survive the best we can. I do visit Target every chance I get though!! :) 

We also did the Museum of Natural Curiosity. That was so much fun. We have never been here before & my kids had a blast. We were there for a little over 2 hours & I think could have easily spent another hour there. We didn't do a lot of the outside stuff because it was a lot colder on the day we were there, so we spent most of our time inside. 

This was the Water Works section... so much fun!

 They had this Rain Forest section that was like a giant play area for the kids with all sorts of stuff to do. It was so much fun. It was really crowded and overstimulating, but my kids loved it. We spent most of our time in there. 

Me and my "mini me" :) I just love her!! 

They also had this room with all of this Science type of stuff. I don't remember what it was called, but it was such a cool room. One this one table they had this rotating circle & all these balls you could roll around on the spinning circle. We had a blast trying different things to see how we could get the balls to stay on the spinning circle. We ended up getting them all on & spinning with the circle. It was fun! 

Anyways, so we headed home. Exhausted & happy! 

And then this happened.....

Poor kid. The night we came home he started running a fever, and we are going on 2 days of this. It's a sad way to end spring break... but at least he waited until after the fun was over to die... that was really nice of him!! 

 

So on top of playing, I've had sick kiddos & I, myself haven't been feeling 100%. So that just led up to nothing getting blogged at all... 

But, I'm home now & I'm back in business. :) 

Friday Donut Day!!

Okay friends, I am trying something new. I have decided that every Friday will be Friday Donut Day.

What is Friday Donut Day, you ask?? Is it about eating Donuts? ABSOLUTELY!!! :) I LOVE donuts, they just make me happy. Don't they make you happy? Just thinking about a warm, fluffy, gooey, sugary donut relaxes my body! (yes I know... I have a serious problem!! But I just can't help myself)

Anyways... back to my post.. I have decided that every Friday I will pick a family, or an organization to dedicate a donut to! Donuts just brighten your day! They put smiles on peoples faces! For a few seconds you can step out of the chaos of the world and smile and enjoy something. I usually end up eating a donut once a week anyways, so why not try and eat one for a good cause, other than just because they are awesome!

So, here's the scoop.... I will find a family that is going thought hard times, or an organization that is maybe doing some type of fundraiser, and I will give them a shout out on my blog every Friday. I will post about any type of go fund me account, or ways to donate to their cause.

My first family I am dedicating a donut to is the Rinn family.

This first family means a lot to me. We lived by them for about 8 years & I love this family. Brett and Heather are amazing people, and are the wonderful parents to 4 amazing kids. I have really gotten to know Heather through church and we have become close friends. This family is so nice & they really will do anything for anyone. They spend most of their time out and about in their neighborhood doing things for others and constantly serving everyone!!

Brett has recently been diagnosed with Liver Cancer and he needs a liver transplant. He will be receiving chemo & radiation treatments until he receives a new liver. This has been a major blow to them, but they are handling it so well. Brett is always smiling and always can find a reason to laugh and be positive.

They have a go fund me account if you would like to donate. Here is the link. If you are able at all to donate, even just a little I know it would be much deserved and appreciated!

Healthier General Tso's Chicken

This weeks recipe is a healthier version of General Tso's Chicken. Here is the link for the recipe.  This one was another one that I really didn't have to fight anyone to eat. My youngest just announced that he wasn't hungry at all, so he wasn't eating. He's the picky one & so I'm not sure how this recipe will go over with picky eaters because he wasn't interested in eating at all. But my girls both loved it & ate it without complaint. The hubbie and I really liked it too. This one will definitely be put in the book of recipes to have more often. I cooked up a pan of brown rice to go with it. I cook my brown rice in the pressure cooker & it cooks it a lot faster. Here is the post about how I pressure cook my brown rice.

I love Chinese food, so I was really excited when I found this recipe. I love finding healthy versions of my favorite foods.  I will say that with this recipe had a few things in it that I have never used or cooked with, like Rice wine vinegar, Hoisin sauce, and fresh ginger. Maybe I'm just not that experienced of a cook, but I was a little hesitant to make this recipe because of those few things I had never used. But I am happy to announce that I was able to find everything for the recipe at the store really fast and with no problems.

I have never cooked with fresh ginger, ever. So I was a little unsure what to do with it.  I just googled it when I got home and it was pretty easy to figure out! :) I peeled it with my regular vegetable peeler, chopped it up and I was good to go. The recipe didn't specify a certain amount of ginger to use, so I just cut off a chunk, called it good, and hoped for the best.

This is the stuff I used. It was kinda fun cooking with fresh ginger, I think I'll use it a lot more in the future.

Anyways, I was reading through the recipe and it says that it's only 25 minutes with prep and cook time! Yeah... not really!! :) I was soooo hoping that would be true! This took me about an hour to make. I picked a day that I didn't have anything going on after the kids got home from school, just in case it took way longer than it was supposed to.  I'm glad I had a low key night to do this on. It just seemed like it was a lot more work than I was expecting it to be.  Maybe the more I make it, the faster I will get at throwing it together. But right now, this one is not one that can just be thrown together.

This also took longer to cook than the recipe said. It took almost double the amount of time to cook & we ended up having to put the oven on broil to get it to brown & crisp up a little.

Even though this recipe was a little high maintenance, I still really liked it. I will definitely make it again. Just on a night when I don't have a bunch of other things going on. :)

Pressure cook Brown Rice

How to cook brown rice in your pressure cooker. I love my pressure cooker! It cooks things so fast & perfectly! I love it almost as much as I love my crockpot! :) It's pretty easy & fast to cook rice this way.

Here is a picture of the pressure cooker I have & use. It's a Presto 8-quart stainless steel pressure cooker.

So this is what I do for my brown rice. I do 2 cups of regular brown rice (the non-minute rice) and 6 cups of water. Then I set it on the stove and get it up to boiling, so that the weight at the top is rocking. Then I cook it for 18 minutes on medium heat. Take it off the heat, and let it cool down & let all the pressure out. Make sure all the pressure is let out before you take the lid off. This pressure cooker & most of the newer ones have a mechanism in the handle that won't let you open it if there is still pressure inside. But just be careful. Then you have amazing soft, sticky, brown rice.

Crockpot Mexican Chicken

This weeks recipe is Crockpot Mexican Chicken.  Easiest recipe in the world. Perfect for crazy busy days when you don't really even have time to get stuff in the crockpot first thing in the morning.

I have been doing chicken like this for a while, really without a recipe. But for people who need a recipe, I found this link on Pinterest for you. This recipe was perfect for the crazy busy week I had. I literally threw the chicken in the crockpot straight out of the freezer, dumped a jar of salsa & 1/4 cup of taco seasoning. Turned the crockpot on for 6 hours, and I was good to go!  Once it's done,  just shred it up and top it on top of whatever you want. In this particular picture I have a corn tortilla, lettuce, chicken, greek yogurt and avocado.

This recipe is very versatile, and can go on top of several different things, and can be used for dinner or lunch. I will make this for dinner, but it can be used as leftovers for another dinner, or several different lunch ideas for the next few days.

 Also, I make my own taco seasoning, so here is that recipe for anyone who is interested. For this recipe, I change it a little. I actually do 3 batches of this recipe at one time and then put it into a huge jar. I only do about 1/2 tsp of salt per batch, and on one of the batches I only do about 1/2 the chili powder. I have found that if I do all the chili powder for each batch, then it's a little too spicy for my kids. I also only do about 1 1/2 tsp. of the red pepper flakes per batch. But go ahead and mess around with it a little bit and see what works for your family.

My kids love this recipe. It's so versatile that you can usually find something to put it on that everyone will eat. Some had it on corn tortillas, whole wheat tortillas, corn chips, taco shells, lettuce (for a mexican type salad), ect. So this is another recipe that I usually don't have to fight anyone to eat.

My "paint strip" block.

So... I have posted several times, and I realized that I haven't posted anything about sewing? How can this be the "Sew Fit" blog with out any sewing going on? Part of the problem has been that there hasn't been time for sewing. You know how you have phases in your life, where sometimes you just have time to be crafty & creative, and sew amazing things, and then there are times when you can't even get the normal, every day things done let alone anything extra. So life right now is just one of those phases where I am bearly keeping my head above water with trying to get the bare minimum done. So not a lot of sewing is going on right now.

But I have joined a quilt guild, thanks to my mom. YAY!! :) So once a month we go to quilt guild and learn awesome things, and I get inspired and excited about making quilts. This past month the President of our quilt guild brought in a bunch of paint strip samples and had us all pick one out of a bag. Then we were challenged to go home and find fabrics that matched the different colors on our strip, and make a block out of it to bring in and show to everyone.

This was the strip I picked....

It worked out well for me because my Husband loves blues, and the more blue something is, the more he likes it. So I knew he would be happy with whatever I made.

Here are my fabric choices. I love being able to take cuts of fabric like this and make them into something awesome!! And of course I had to pick something with polkadots!! I am absolutely addicted to polkadots.... I have no desire to seek therapy for this addiction!!

I hopped on the internet and started browsing through websites, looking for a free quilt block pattern to make with my colors. My mom told me about this site called quilterscache.com. It has tons of free quilt block patterns. So after browsing around for a while, I came across this pattern. It's called The Card Trick.   It looked so fun, and it was actually really easy to figure out. This is how my block turned out.

(this is me showing my block at my quilt guild meeting)

I was so excited to see it all come together. The great thing is, is that I didn't have to un-pick ANYTHING while making this block. (virtual knuckles!)  I think this is one of the only times I've been able to sit down to a pattern for the first time, and not totally screw it up!! This either means that I am getting better at quilting, or this pattern is crazy easy. Either way, it was a huge quilting confidence boost!!

Oh, and the best part of all is that my husband LOVED this block, and he actually asked me to go and buy more fabric so I can make more of these, and make it into a quilt. What?!?! I know right... total quilters paradise when your husband is actually requesting that you spend $ on fabric!! "Um... yes, ablsoutely, I would love to go and buy more fabric, and ignore all the house work to make you a new quilt!" :)

Maybe one day, in a year or two, I will get this quilt finished and I can post about the actual finished product! :)

Honey Salmon

This weeks clean recipe is Honey Salmon. I actually didn't have Salmon, but I had Halibut, so I just used that and it tasted amazing! Here is the link for that recipe.

(yes this is a paper plate we are eating off of... this is what happens when I don't have time to do my dishes for a few days! No judging!!! )

It literally takes 10 minutes to make. The whole meal took less than 15 minutes to throw together. While the Halibut was baking, I threw a bag of Edamame into the microwave for a few minutes, and chopped up some Strawberries. This was a big hit with everyone, except my extremely picky 5 year old!

This was the sad / mad face he had after eating the 2 tiny bites I made him eat. Don't you just feel so bad for him? He was downing a whole glass of water to help him swallow. I'm not even sure he chewed any of it. But, he ate what he was supposed to without his tantrum lasting more than a few minutes, and to his surprise, he didn't die. So, I call that a success with this kid! :)

I will definitely be making this one more often. My husband & my parents go fishing in Alaska usually once a year, so we always have an abundance of fish and I am always looking for good recipes.

Quinoa stuffed Bell Peppers

This weeks clean recipe is Quinoa stuffed Bell Peppers. Here is the link to this recipe. 

They were pretty easy, and really good. What was nice about this recipe is that I was able to get all of the filling made and mixed together earlier in the day, so that when I got home from the 10 & 11 year old girls activity for church that I was in charge of, I just threw the stuffing into the peppers, topped it with some cheese, and stuck them in the oven. So even though it wasn't a crock pot recipe, it was still pretty fast to throw together.

My husband and I loved them. My kids loved the fact that the peppers acted like bowls, but none of them ate the actual peppers. They at the stuffing just fine & liked it, but they didn't touch their peppers. I didn't mind too much, because there is a lot of healthy stuff in the stuffing, do I didn't fight them to eat their peppers. And, here is another fast recipe that my kids didn't fight me to eat, YAY!!

We also had a few left over, so I was able to have them for lunches during the week!! Bonus!! I do not like trying to figure out what is for lunch, and I do not like having to dirty up a bunch of dishes to make something for lunch.  So this was a perfect recipe for the beginning of the week. :)

My last week on the 21 Day Fix Extreme program

Okay everyone, I have finished the 21 Day Fix Extreme program. YAY!!! I did it!! I wasn't perfect at it, but I think I did pretty good!

This past week everything has seemed a little easier. I felt really good during all my workouts, I even missed a workout one day and I was able to double up the next day and not feel too fatigued. So I have definitely been able to feel myself getting stronger. I enjoyed the workouts more this last week as well. I will admit that I'm still not sure if I enjoyed them this week because I knew I never had to do them ever again after this if I didn't want to, or if it was because I was getting better at them... hahaha... but either way, working out this week didn't feel like something I had to talk myself into. (yes some days, I still have to talk myself into working out in the morning!)

I also noticed that I didn't feel like I needed to measure everything I was eating with the containers as much. I felt like I had a good enough sense of serving sizes by now & so I didn't use the containers as much as I had been using them. This was nice. I'm not the type of person who likes measuring my food, or counting calories, or points, or anything like that. I'm lazy I guess, but having to do any of that extra stuff just makes me feel like being healthy is too hard or complicated. I'm all about simplicity! I'm busy... I don't know about any of you, but I have a lot going on & adding that extra burden of counting & calories and measuring stuff, just takes up too much time if you have to do it long term.

I will admit to falling a little off the wagon as of Friday! My husband was getting ready to go out of town for a few weeks, and I was getting ready that day to head off to a retreat for work. So, I did have a donut on Friday morning with my husband, and I drank a Diet Coke on my way to the retreat. And, although I didn't go crazy on my retreat, I stuck pretty close to clean eating, I didn't take my containers or really keep track of how many of what colors I was eating. I just wanted to relax and enjoy myself with out having to focus on my eating. Sometimes you just need to throw all of that planning into the wind and enjoy life. That doesn't mean you have to go out and eat all of your favorite junk foods just because you are taking a break from your meal planner, but it is nice to not have to think so much about what you are eating all of the time.

Okay, now onto my thoughts on the program as a whole. It was a lot of work at first as far as planning my meals out. It took a little while to get the hang of it. I also had a hard time sticking 100% to the nutritional plan. I'm like a rebellious teenager or something when it comes to stuff like this. If someone is telling me I can't have something, then that is all I want! So having a list of specific food I could eat, just made me REALLY want to eat all the other foods that aren't on the list! :) Heaven help me if my life ever depended on eating healthy 100% of the time. If it was a choice between eating healthy all the time or die, I think I would end up dead pretty fast! :) But really other than that I enjoyed this program. I really did learn a ton!! And if you think about it, if something isn't challenging, are we really learning anything? So, having to suffer through planning out my first week of meals, really was worth it. I gained a lot of knowledge from this program.

I learned a lot more about portion control than I expected to, and I love that! This program really taught me how to fuel my body. It taught me to go a little beyond just healthy, clean eating, and made me think about getting in a good variety of all of the different food groups.

I also LOVE the workouts!! (with the exception of the Yoga! But, that is just me. It's an excellent workout, I just don't like Yoga at all....) The workouts really push my body, but they are only 30 minutes a day. To be able to get an awesome workout in, in only 30 minutes is the greatest feeling in the world. :) I can never wake up earlier enough, or have the attention span for hour long workouts.

Here are my Before and After pics.

I am really pleased with these. You can definitely see some major definition. My stomach isn't perfect at all by any means, but what can you expect from someone who hasn't worked her stomach out in 10 years and has had 3 C-sections!?!? And check out my bicep!! Look, there is a definite muscle line there along my right arm! :) Sorry, I could not get a back picture for comparison, I have no one around right now to take my pics for me so you will just have to settle for the front and side views. 

As far as pounds and inches go, I am down a total of 3.5 lbs, and 3.5 inches. :) 

I think that I will actually do this program every few months to help me stay on track with my eating and portion control. And.... I think I will actually do the workouts more often. I can really feel myself gaining some good muscle with these workouts. And based off my pictures, you can see the results as well.

So at the end of the day, I am a big fan of the 21 Day Fix Extreme, and I am glad I tried it!! :)

Clean Chicken Parmesan

Okay friends, it's clean recipe Tuesday again. This weeks recipe is Clean Chicken Parmesan! Here is the link to the recipe!

Okay, this meal was a HUGE hit!!! It was easy to cook, and my family all scarfed it down! The best of both worlds... I didn't have a huge mess in the kitchen & I didn't have to fight with any of my "littles" to eat! :) Literally in the middle of dinner, my family was actually talking about how they were excited to eat the leftovers again the next day for dinner.... I had to break the unhappy news that I didn't make enough for leftovers. So, there is a real possibility that I am making this meal all over again one day this week. That is how much people loved this meal.

Here is the picture I took. It actually turned out kinda pretty! I am not one of those people who makes "pretty" food. It always looks terrible, but usually tastes pretty good. So to make a fast, easy meal that actually looked like the picture on the blog, was a total bonus! :)

I followed the instructions on the blog to make my own whole wheat bread crumbs since I couldn't find any at the store. It was easier & faster than I thought it would be. I think I'll make my own bread crumbs at home from now on.  I also looked for a marinara sauce that had the lowest amount of sugar, to keep it as clean as possible. 

My second week on The 21 Day Fix.

Okay this week, in some ways, went a little better than last week. In other ways, not so great. I have been sick most of the week! (major sad face) I hate being sick. I'm not sure if it's allergies or what, but it has taken over my body, particularly my face. Note the scary picture below! I have missed 2 workouts this week. Ahhhh, I'm so annoyed. I hate being sick & I hate missing workouts. But whatever it is that I still have, has been so crazy. There have been some days where my eyes were so puffy & watery, I could hardly keep them open. Seriously, check out this awful picture of myself... this is proof that I was dying!!

Could you have worked out looking like this? It is impossible to workout with "quasimodo face" going on!! Believe me, I felt exactly how I looked too!  (p.s. - I hope this picture is making you laugh until you pee your pants, because I look pretty freaking hilarious! My poor husband, he's had to wake up to this at least 3 days this week! And he still loves me....he's a saint!!)

Other than being sick though, I had a lot of successes this week. First of all I did a lot better at sticking to the nutritional plan. I did cheat one night & I had a piece of birthday cake. But I found that it was easier to stick to the strict plan this week. I actually passed up donuts with my family the other day. That is huge... we were all in the car & everyone ordered a donut except for me! I stuck to my plan of no donuts during this challenge, and that actually feels better than being able to scarf down a donut! :)

Another major thing I have noticed is that I am not nearly as sore as I was last week. I was worried for this week because of how sore I already was, but I have felt a lot better and stronger this week. I know I just mentioned that I missed 2 workouts, so you are probably thinking that I wasn't sore because I slacked off all week. But I didn't miss my first workout until Thursday & I was noticing before then how much better I was feeling after my workouts that week. It is a huge confidence boost when you can do hard things, and do them easier than you could the last time you tried them. That is awesome progress to see yourself making.

On the days I wasn't looking and feeling like "quasimodo", I pushed it pretty hard and had some excellent workouts! This is proof that I didn't slack off all week either. Look at all that sweat! (can't you just hear Justin singing "I'm bringing Sexy back" in the background when you look at this picture) :)

We also had a new addition to our family this week. We added a puppy to our family!!  World, allow me to introduce.... Lucy!!

Lucy is an 8 month old, Lab mix. She is only about 40 lbs, so she's not ginormous! She is actually pretty calm, which is nice. She is already house broke, crate trained, and knows a few of the basic commands. My kids are in heaven!! They are so excited.

So far she has been really easy to have around and fits in great with our family. It just feels natural to have her with us.

This week hasn't gone how I had planned it out at all. I have been sick. The kids had a day off of school that I completely forgot about until the day before, and we picked up a Dog that we weren't exactly planning on picking up this week. But, I survived and I stuck to this challenge pretty good. Life happens, and it's usually not how we expect or plan it. But you can stick to your health goals and plans, even if Life is changing everything. Sometimes, you might not make it 100 %, like missing 2 workouts, but I just kept going.  Missing 2 workouts didn't have to throw me off of my nutritional plan, and I didn't let it. Last week, sucking at my nutritional plan, didn't have to throw me off of sticking to my workout schedule, and I didn't let it either.

I just hopped on the scale and I have lost another 1.5 lbs. Not too bad for being sick, missing workouts, and my body being all out of wack.

Just do your best and keep moving forward. No matter how many backward steps you take, or that you think you are taking, you can always be moving forward if you are determined enough.

2 weeks down, 1 more week to go baby!! Lets see if I can actually have a week where I eat exactly how I'm supposed to, and get all my workout in! :) I got this!! :)