Quick and Easy meals for the week

Some weeks I do so well and other weeks go out the door... the take-out door ha!

Like I've mentioned before, husband and I have busy schedules work during the day, then our side biz and events/hobbies after work, things can get hectic! So it's so important that I plan my meals (even though sometimes I do and things still come up/or we find a new restaurant we want to try so badly haha!)

So this week I wrote out my schedule and from what I foresee I know that I can make dinner at home at least 4x this week. The other thing is, planning for those days we get home later than usual because of work... so quick easy meals I can prepare is important.

For one, I love to bake most things, that way I get home throw it together, pop it in the oven and it gives me time to do any house chores before dinner and leave me my evenings for my side biz or American Idol! aahah!

Like this chicken and potatoes I cooked all in one dish yesterday.

I also bought a few of these frozen dinners...

No preservatives which is great and it's a quick meal on those days that I'm in the door later than usual.
It was yummy!

Set yourself up for success (Tony Robbins) by planning ahead!.... Now I hope I can get a couple good weeks in!

Do you have your dinners planned this week???

We are Godparents!

My husband and I were chosen to be the Godparents of our little niece M!
Yesterday was her baptism. We had such a great time and just feel so honored to be this precious little girl's Godparents. We look forward to guiding her, her whole life.
Our family. Mom and us kids and grand-kids.
So many camera's flashing no one knew where to look!

After the church we went to a restaurant with 80 of our family members. It was so fun to see and talk to all our family. I love having these occasions to catch up with some family we haven't seen for a little while. It's so nice.


By the end of the day we all felt like this...
I have a little flu too so I was extremely exhausted. I'm home from work today, drinking lots of tea and soup and hope to feel better soon!

Happy Monday!

New Espresso Machine!

This weekend is my niece's Baptism and my husband and I are going to be her Godparents! We are so excited, happy and blessed. My family came over last night and my Brother and SIL brought us a gift...
This Espresso Machine! We were not expecting anything at all and it was such a surprise to get this awesome gift. We love it!

We ordered Chinese Food and had a great night. My Sister the little baker made these yummy cupcakes Baby M is getting so big and she is so cute!
She wanted to hold the iphone so badly, she is so smart haha! She loves when you sing to her and she always makes eye contact to make sure you are looking at her haha!

Look at this face!

Some Before And After Pics

Before Kitchen

Before Living room

Before Dining Room

After Kitchen!

After Dining Room

After Living Room!!

Finally! I love how different the house looks by just adding pot lights and crown molding. My husband had to re-paint all the walls because of the dust that messed up the walls. It was alot of work! They had to scrape the ceilings from the stucco it had and boy did that make the biggest mess ever! Our project took a while to complete but I'm glad we did it!

I feel like a maid! I've cleaned so much and still have to get into the glass cases to clean em all up and still need to put some decor back in the dining room.

I have more cleaning scheduled for my evening....

I should get cleaning...

What a Friday!

My Friday started early! 530am I was up early to take my mom to an appointment at the hospital. It was so dark and rainy outside I was dreading the drive to the city. Before I left I did my usual morning routine...view twitter. That's when I saw all the tweets about the massive earthquake in Japan and all the tsunami warnings. My heart goes out to all the people in Japan.
On my way down to the city I listened to the radio and I was happy to see that there was a TV in the hospital waiting room on CNN, many people were gathered around and watching. It's where I spent most my day.

My mom had a procedure done to check her arteries in her heart. She's always had a heart murmur but they found a larger hole that needs to be closed. So I spent my day at the hospital.

Everything is ok with my mom, but she will need to get that hole closed up.

When we got back to my moms house my SIL and niece were there waiting. Since they went into a main artery on my mom, she couldn't be alone for 24 hours. So my sister and my brother came later and we spent the evening chatting away.

She is soo adorable and loves when you sing to her.

Today my husband is going to tryyy and finish up the reno's so I can finally have a clean house again.

Here is a before and after

After... Crown Molding, Potlights and new Chandelier.

Hope you all have a great Saturday.

Wordless Wednesday Weather!

Weekend of cooking!

The weather this weekend was crazy. It rained all day Saturday then we had a snow storm Saturday night.

Husband had to work from home this weekend so we spent a lot of time indoors. Which was great because I made delicious meals all weekend! WINNING (LOL)

I used my little food processor like crazy haha!
I made my version of re-fried beans. Black beans and garlic fried with a little coconut oil. It turned out perfect!

Thank you for all the great comments on my last post. I love calorie counting especially on those days we eat out. I like knowing how many calories the foods are so I can pick and choose the healthier choices.

Tonight I tried a new Salmon recipe.

I bushed melted coconut butter on the salmon and topped it with bread crumbs and cilantro. Placed it in greased (coconut oil) dish and cooked it for 20mins at 375F
My husband and I loved it! I served it with a avocado salad and sweet potatoes.

My goal this week is to have homemade meals for Breakfast Lunch and Dinner for 5 days of the week!

Have you tried any new recipes you love lately??

Counting My Calories.

I used my Food Processor for the first time!

My husband's mom always makes Chimol and I love it. Chimol is like a Salsa I guess. Chopped Tomato, Pepper, Cilantro, Onions,Oil and Lemon. You can make it chunky or you can make it more like a sauce. With my food processor I made my own version! I made it like a sauce so I can pour it over grilled chicken tonight. Yum!

I've been using "myfitness pal" App on my iphone to track my calories. I love this app because it has everything you can possibly think of!

It even had what I ate yesterday... A Mucho Burrito! Delicious! Although, it made me go over my daily calories.... I wouldn't have thought about it at all if I hadn't added it to my app.
I'll do better today. I'm making my grocery list now! Less eating out and more eating in!

Do you calorie count? How have you been doing lately!?

New Food Processor!

Finally I bought a Food Processor! I'm excited! I see a lot of Salsa's and Sauces in my near future ha! I also have a recipe for fish cakes I've been wanting to try and I need this little guy to help with that.

Do you have one of these? What are some things you make with it? Let me know!

It's Wednesday and the week feels like it's dragging! I wasn't feeling well today so I took the day off to relax.

I made sure to make dinner tonight because yesterday we didn't!
I made Quinoa, mushrooms and peppers with spicy chicken legs. Yummy!

Now... to fit in a workout...

My New Wok! and more.

Day 1 of the week for at home cooking!
I bought this new wok and made my favorite meal Coconut Red Thai Curry Shrimp!
I loaded the broccoli in there, along with red peppers and mushrooms. Dinner was delicious! and I didn't snack at all tonight :) I made good choices all day!

I really love the purchases I made over the weekend. My favorite pieces include this gray blazer. I have a black one already and I would love to find a red one! These blazers are great for both work and pleasure. At work with a pair of dress pants and pleasure with tights or jeans!

I bought this shirt too that can be worn underneath the blazer or I can even wear a long sleeve tight black shirt under it and that would look great too.
Aldo had these booties/shoes for 50% off. $40.00! Although when I brought them home I felt like it was soo wrong to add to my other 6 pairs of black boots!/booties. I think it's time for some color!! I like the heal on these, it's a little thicker. Where I walk to work my stilettos always get caught in the interlocking, and I've been ruining alll my heals! grr!
This week we are completing our reno's and hopefully will not be doing anything else until summer. Reno's are a lot of work! A lot of cleaning! I'll have pics of what we did and the end of the week!

Are you doing any reno's? I think you know how I feel :)