Sunday, March 21, 2010

Frozen Dinners

I am finally getting around to posting about my frozen dinner find. I wanted to provide more details but unfortunately I have a life (sometimes I forget). So in a nut shell here are my findings.

Smart Ones (on sale) make a great meal. I bought three each of four different types of entrees and added meat to make it a meal. To the Ravioli's and Pasta Primavera I added frozen Tyson chicken strips and to the Santa Fe meal and Cheesy Marinara I added lean ground turkey. They were all very yummy! The portion sizes were about 1 cup, not really filling so you will want to add a good vegetable and maybe a fruit for the sides. With the Santa Fe meal we had a couple of corn tortillas. Looking back at my tracker each meal including sides was about 6 to 8 points.





This is one of my favorites, so yummy. I bought Tyson already cooked grilled breasts (the ones I bought were hickory), so easy. I just heated them according to directions and served it over rice with these two great marinades I picked up at Sam's Club. One is called Mr. Yoshida's marinade and the other I can't remember the name but it is sweet and tangy (sweet and sour sauce only yummier). I added a vegetable (usually green beans) and some seasonal fruit (apple slices or oranges). My tracker said that with sides it was about an 8 point meal.


This one is my absolute favorite (we still have some in the freezer). I bought this Tilapia at Sam's Club and it is so good. Once again I served it over rice drizzled with sauce (sweet and tangy was my favorite). On the side we had broccoli and pineapple chunks. The fish fillets are 5 points each with sides my tracker says it was about a 7 point meal. The kids ate fish sticks.

There were some other things that we tried but these meals had the least amount of points and they were the yummiest. The frozen dinners definitely freed up more time to spend our afternoons outside chilling with the neighbors. However, the number 8 (meaning 8 points) may seem small to some but when you follow Weight Watchers the number 8 takes on an entire new meaning. An 8 point dinner put evening snack on the back burner for another day and I need my Skinny Cow.

All in all the frozen dinners were a success, everyone enjoyed them. It gave me more time for other things and no dinner time rush. I will definitely be adding a couple frozen dinners to my weekly dinner menu.

LOW POINT QUICK CASSEROLE COOKING IS NEXT!!

I am going to try to make two at a time one for dinner and one to freeze.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Townie by Electra


I call her.....
Magnificent

She is Townie by Electra


Photobucket

She is a "bonus" for my commitment, hardwork, and for meeting all of my "performance" goals.



I call her....
Magnificent

Good Morning

When I wake up in the morning this is what I see.


I lay awake taking in the crisp white mixed with the pastel greens and earthy browns. The mix of colors takes me away to a B&B deep in the Prescott Pines. Or maybe a beach cottage with an ocean breeze flowing through the windows. I stretch my arms, pull back the covers, and swing my legs around to the floor.

And then I remember, YIKES! I have been neglecting my space.

Another day begins...........

Bella Bean Photo Challenge

Saturday, March 13, 2010

One Cute Baby




My favorite thing about this photo shoot was how happy the baby was to be with his mommy.
I love that bond between mommy and baby! It brings back great memories.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Renaissance Festival

Our Virtual Academy has opened some pretty awesome doors to discovery for us with many more to come.

We were very excited to find out about the AZVA day at the Renaissance Festival. The boys got busy reading books and completing History lessons to prep for the big day. I was a bit nervous knowing from past experience that most of the women were big, "boobs" (hee-hee). Thankfully being there on an all school day wasn't so bad.

We had so much fun watching shows, EATING, shopping, and playing games. Our favorite show was the Muddy Show, our favorite thing to eat was the Funnel Cake (candied almonds came in close second, tied with the nutty fudge), the boys finally decided to get dragon pets (I was afraid for Kendal's butterfly), and we lost big at all of the games we played. Overall, it was a great day!







I am so excited to be part of AZVA! Not only has it provided a wonderful FREE self paced curriculum, it has filled our weeks with fun online learning sessions, advanced learning opportunities, and fun field trips to keep us "GOOD" busy. This week the boys are going to a Spring Training game with their dad, next week the entire family is going to the Science Center (FREE), and the following week the boys will be playing the piano in a school wide recital/talent show downtown. Many of these opportunities have been provided by their awesome teacher, Mrs. Conrad, some by the Booster Club, and the rest by the school itself. We are loving our AZVA!!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Random Thought

I really hate this question......


"Are you o-kay?"


It's an insult to my acting skills.



Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Multi-Disasterer

I have always prided myself on being pretty good at multitasking, UNTIL, today.

Normally in school there is a lot of planning that goes into a water day, not our school. We are very spontaneous with our water days. As a matter of fact I didn't even know we were going to have one today.


To be fare it started last night when an exhausted me told MY LB, "Don't worry I will give Kendal a bath tomorrow." (getting the idea?) So this morning we went about our regular, "I am finally getting the groove" activities. Piano, chores and devotional. After that I asked the boys to log on to see what they had to do for the day while I gave Kendal a bath.


While I was preparing her and the tub in my bathroom, thousands of things were going through my head and anxious me wanted to be sure we started off on task for the day. So I stepped out of the bathroom to check on the boys and get them started on their assignments. ONLY, I got overly involved and forgot that I was multitasking, UNTIL, a little wet girl came in and said, "I'm done".


CRAP! My head was spinning, "Did I turn off the water?" Answer, NO! That is how our water day began. With LOTS of towels, a frazzled mom, a Matthew on errand to get a mop, and TONS AND TONS OF WATER.

After those fireworks (or should I say water works) were complete and our day became COMPLETELY off task we proceeded into our school room when I remembered that I had a naked baby who incidentally was busy emptying the humidifier onto her floor and splashing in the puddle.


So I picked up the humidifier and not knowing what to do with it, put it into the kids bathtub which to my surprise was already filled with water, SPLASH!




Not to worry!
One unplanned completely multi-disastrous water day is not going to have me....
Throwing in the towel!!