This Week's Eats

Here is what's on the menu for our family this week. If you want to know how I make any of these things, just ask :)

Monday:

Balsalmic Chicken, Roasted Potatoes, Steamed Asparagus

Tuesday:

Layered Enchilada Bake

Wednesday:

Spicy Broiled Salmon, Baked Potatoes, Peas

Thursday:

Baked Spaghetti, Green Beans, Garlic Bread

Friday:

Grilled Chicken, Italian Veggie Pasta Salad

Party Time

We took a few days this week and went to Missouri to celebrate Kirsten's 3rd Birthday. She told me she wanted a Princess party and a Ballerina party, so that's what we did. First we drove to St. Louis to celebrate with my side of the family at my Grandparents house. They have a big pool party every year with all the extended family so we decided to do Kirsten's party with it this year.



Kirsten with her little cousins :)



My Mom and Dad with all my siblings and our kids.

Then it was on to Moberly for a Ballerina party with Jack's family. We had a great time celebrating with his parents, grandparents, and some aunts and uncles. Kirsten wore a ballerina dress that her cousin gave her the day before. She looked so cute, and loved being all dressed up!

My weakness...well one of them!

Our house inspection was today so I had to take the girls somewhere for a couple hours. First we went to the park for a little bit and then to Target to pick up a few things. Well, I have this weakness. I can NOT go to Target without getting a jumbo soft pretzel! Yummo for warm doughy salty goodness! So that along with a Pepsi ended up being my lunch. Delicious,yes...Nutritious, um I wish!

So to make up for my lunch I decided to make a super healthy smoothie for a snack this afternoon. I have been making smoothies a lot this summer because they are super easy, refreshing, and very filling.

Today's mix included:
frozen banana
about 1 cup frozen fruit (strawberries, pineapple, mango, peaches)
a handful of fresh spinach
1/3 cup vanilla greek yogurt
about 1 cup skim milk

Just load it all into the blender, and blend till smooth and creamy.

One big glass of deliciousness :)

Yumm!

Kara kept making this face everytime I tried to take her picture...she is such a happy girl!

Storytime

Something I have been doing with Kirsten for the past couple years is storytime at the public library. Our library has some GREAT programs for kids! Kirsten loves storytime! They read stories, sing songs, dance, and say little rhymes. It's a lot of fun!



Watching the other kids :)



Kara taking it all in. She likes it too!



Food Matters

This afternoon while the girls where napping I watched a documentary on Netflix called Food Matters. If you haven't see this yet I would really recommend checking it out. The movie discusses how important it is to feed our body healthy, raw, organic foods. It talks about the amazing benefits vitamins and minerals have, and how we can actually use those things to prevent and fight off diseases rather than resorting to modern medicine with all the adverse side effects.

A few key things I took away from this documentary where:

• It really is true: Garbage in, Garbage out!
• "Let thy Food be thy Medicine and thy Medicine be thy Food" - Hippocrates.
• Take your Vitamins!
• Drink 1 liter of water every morning before eating anything else. This jumps starts your metabolism, and helps to flush out the yuck :)
• Strive to make at least 51% of your diet raw (uncooked) to get the maximum amount of nutrients you can.
• It is up to me to take responsibility for what I put in my mouth. Instead of investing in houses and cars, we need to be investing in our lives by feeding ourselves and our children wholesome foods.

I thought it was really cool how the movie kept pointing to the fact that if we treat our bodies right they are perfectly capable of staying healthy and fighting diseases. There are naturally occurring vitamins to fight virtually every ailment, from depression to cancer.

I know how important it is to eat healthy and take care of my body, but it is so easy to get lazy and complacent. This film was a good reminder! Even more so as a Christian I know my body is a temple of God! Am I really honoring that body by putting all that junk food into it?

If you decide to check out "Food Matters" I'd love to hear what you think.