Mani pedi for Audrey

We started off this morning with some girl time, since my recent schedule has been clean, study, clean, study, sleep we haven't had much time for fun. On top of that the weather is all rainy and yucky so we can't go outside. So our best solution was a mani pedi for miss Audrey! 

At first she didn't know what to think! But after a few minutes she was in love with the idea of being pampered. After a nice foot massage and scrub this girl wasn't wanting to stop.

Audrey has this really bad habit of picking nail polish off so we really don't paint her nails to much seeing as it is a lot of work and it only last a total of five min. But occasionally I try again to see if she has outgrown that bad habit yet. 

She picked out pink and green and said she wanted flowers so that is what we attempted lol.

We have fun while we do her nails and she has learned to be very patient while I do them. 

5 min 4 points

Looking to make a quick breakfast that is low in points? 

This took me literally 5 min to make and only added up to 4 point plus on weight watchers.

1 egg white

1 piece of lean ham chopped (1 pp)

1 bagel thin (whatever flavor they are all only 3 pp)

1 tbsp ketchup

 You can always add variation like adding some cheese for 1pp

Try adding some veggies like peppers and onions if you like but me personally I like it simple :) 

WW Orange chicken dinner part 1

Tonight I'm making some ww orange chicken for dinner with white rice and vegis, I normally do brown rice but white rice and brown rice are the same pt value  so I'm splurging with white. 

I'm sharing my most amazing rice cooking trick that has become ever so handy. 

For those who hate getting the precise measurements correct with rice cooking this quick tip is for you. 

I start by putting my rice in my rice cooker, I have a generic cup that came with my rice cooker that is one cup measurement. 

Next I start to add the water and just add a rough amount til it goes a little over the rice.

I gently give the rice pot a shake to make sure my rice is even and not lumpy, this is key, the rice must be even across the bottom of the pan. 

Then I stick my finger in, (my hands are clean) and I wouldn't do this if it wasn't for family lol.

 

The water should come to the first line on the tip of your Pointer finger.

Just add water as needed, make sure that you even the rice out again after adding the water. 

And I know people have different size fingers but my boy friend taught me and his whole family is Chinese and he has worked in many of Asian restaurants and it works no matter who's finger lol. 

Good luck and hope my tip is useful! I will post the rest of the meal later tonight :)

WW Orange Chicken part 2

So while my rice was cooking from my previous post, my chicken was also baking right next to it!

I was able to use my new toaster oven! Which was awesome, I hate turning on the oven for only 30 min. 

I have been slacking on my weight loss the past two weeks so I did meal planning yesterday for the week in order to get back on track. I modified a recipe from the WW 50th edition cook book and it was very yummy and only 5 PP.

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 30

Servings: 4 

Points plus: 5 per serving

1lb pack of boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces

1-2 tablespoon olive oil

2 small clementines/1 med orange

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons dried rosemary 

1 teaspoon garlic salt

2 teaspoons pepper

In a small bowl add your olive oil, zest both clemintines just the orange don't zest to far down on the peel it turns bitter, add the rest of your dry ingredients and coat the chicken. Peel the clemintines/ oranges.

Put chicken and clemintines on a foil line broiler pan and bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

This was super quick and super yummy! I also used a steam bag of veggies which was a broccoli, carrot, snow pea, and water chesnut combo.

My whole meal was only 8 points! 

Orange chicken-5points

1/2 cup rice-3points

Veggies-0points 

Caramel flan goodness!!!

While I hate the traffic, how rude people can be, and not being able to communicate in Miami there is one thing that I love...the food! This city has an amazing option of Latin cuisine. Because of this I have become very fond of flan. I finally made my first flan the other day for my friend Melissa and while it was messy it was fun.

Be warned! It takes forever to get that amazing cramel sauce but it is so worth it!

Step 1- caramel sauce

1 1/4 cup of sugar in a medium sauce pan over low heat.

Make sure you use granulated sugar

It takes about 15-20 min and make sure you stir occasionally until it starts to melt then you need a constant stir

Once it's completely liquid make a quick transfer to your baking dish.

If you want it to be easier I would even recommend using the baking dish to melt the sugar that way you don't have to worry about the transfer process. 

Let it sit for ten min then add the flan mix, instructions below

Place a roasting pan (something big enough to hold your baking pan) in the oven with some water to heat up

Step 2 flan mix

1 stick of cream cheese softened 

5 eggs

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1 splash (1-2 tsp) vanilla (either extract or bean paste)

In a mixing bowl with either a hand held or stand alone mixer beat the cream cheese until completely smooth, use a spatula or spoon to scrape the sides and bottom and mix again.

Add eggs one at a time and mix completely.

Add remaining ingredients and blend completely until smooth. 

Add mix to flan base in the baking pan and bake in the pan with the water at 350 for 50 min

Top edges will be light gold and center will still be wiggly lol if that's the word but it will move a little and not be firm.

Let it cool on a wire wrack for an hour and then refrigerate over night. 

Bon appetite!!! 

New chalkboard design! 2 tips for chalkboard design!

I love my chalk board and here I am at it again! I found two things very helpful toady when writing my chalkboard piece!

1 straight edge- have some sort of straight edge to do lines to write on and help with keeping your letters straight!

2 wet and dry- have a wet and dry eraser or paper towel handy to help fix little mistakes and erase writing lines! Make sure to wipe with wet and then wipe with the dry so it doesn't leave chalk marks

I am still a beginner so I am just getting the hang of this but I will be posting more tips as I learn them! Good luck with your chalking!!!!

Quick and healthy breakfast

I'm trying to be a clean eater this year which isn't easy for me because I love bacon ad sweets and pasta! But I am trying! I have to say I rather enjoyed my breakfast this morning! It was healthy and tasty! 

I started off with a fruit drink because I was about to lose some strawberries. 

1 cup of strawberries 

2/3 cup papaya

2/3 cup of grapes

1/2 banana

1 tsp of ginger

The ginger is supposed to help you body absorb all the anti oxidants from the fruits and you can't even taste it!!!

I had a fresh papaya and some hand picked local strawberries so the flavor was so good! 

I was even lucky enough to get a good batch of bananas that had a lot of flavor. My grapes on the other hand were not that great but I didn't want to waste them, I am thinking next time I would leave out the grapes or wen austitute with blueberries or another fruit.

I even had a partner in crime this morning who was enjoying getting little bits of fresh fruit! She started of really well but by the end it was no longer eating more like smudging everywhere! 

I love my magic bullet, it only took about 1 min to whip it all together and audrey and I shared it as part of our breakfast! 

While the drink was yummy I need something a little more filling so I mad myself a little something extra.

1 bagel thin toasted

1 tsp peanut butter

1/2 banana

1 tsp honey

1 tsp chia seeds

Extra yummy and extra easy to put together! Best part was my whole breakfast was only 6 points plus values!

So if you are looking for something quick and good for you here it is! The fact it tasted good was just an added bonus!

Hospital Shadow Boxes

Back before Christmas my mom picked me up some new treasure from my favorite store, Home Goods!!!

Shadow boxes!!!! These are my first shadow boxes and I was instantly in love!!! The wood is tarnished looking and the back is burlap!! I couldn't have found better ones in tried! The best part was they were only $13 each!!!

I didn't even have to think twice about what I wanted to do, I had known from te moment I saw them I wanted to do both girls a hospital shadow box!

It only took a few months lol with the holidays and new year I had to push my project to the side. I finally got to start them the other day!!!

Sophia's is done! And it was a blast to make them! I miss how tiny she was!

I am still working on Audrey's because some items are with my mom but I am hoping to finish it soon! 

They were so easy and fun and with the shadow box there are infinite possibilities of what someone could do!!!

Yummy breakfast with low pp!!!!

I have come to discover a quick breakfast that I love!!! Now it is only cereal but it's yummy and has low points plus value! I have to have something quick and easy with both kids especially since one is sick.

Even Audrey loves this cereal! It's only 3 point plus points for one serving! It would be so good with some fresh fruit but I am all out and in need of a grocery store trip! 

Life cinnamon is my new favorite cereal! And my secret breakfast weapon because it's filling, has a good taste, and take about 30 seconds to make for both Audrey and I. 

Weight loss progress

I am the girl who decided I wanted to lose weight right around the holidays, so I decided to diet, right around thanksgiving too! It was very difficult but I was so tired of the baby weight from baby number two! I started on November 12th 2013, I had previously had great luck with weight watchers after baby number one so I have it a second chance. 

So far so good! I am 15 pounds down, not as much as I would have liked but I can see and feel the difference, plus not bad for the holidays lol. My first time around I lost 25 in the first 7 weeks but this time has been a little more challenging since I am still breastfeeding part of the time. 

Weight watchers is an amazing program where I can eat the foods I love but just watch my portions better and become more informed in what I really am putting into my body. 

My goal is to lose another 30 to 40 pounds and I am wanting to be there by Sophia's first birthday which is May 7th.

Here is my progress so far! The top which was November 12, 2013 and the bottom was today, January 7, 2014.

Not a bad start to the new year and can't wait to post more progress pictures!

A quick happy 8 month birthday to princess Sophia!!!! Poor baby has a cold but always has a smile :) 

Chalk Boards!!!

I love Chalk boards and how much you can do with them. They are so easy to decorate and add a great pop of flair to any home. not only are they decorative but they make easy ways to put up task and to-do's. They can be used for wedding, in homes, in offices, and many other places.

They are so inexpensive and easy to find, I happened to find mine at my local TJ Max but they are at Marshalls and ross and many other places. Mine was like $15 on clearance and the prices range depending on size. 

We are still working on our artistic side a little bit lol but we had so much fun with it. 

The board came with a thing of white chalk but i went into Audrey's stash of sidewalk chalk for our colored options. Seeing as Davids Birthday just passed we went to Pinterest for inspiration and came up with special decor just for him.

So there you have it, some of our chalk board creations, hopefully more to come in the near future and will do a new post with lots more pictures.

Celebration of Life and Heart break of loss

The start to the new year has been a very bumpy one! I am hoping it is not a sign to how the rest of the year will go. December 30th we celebrate a life, the life of my boyfriend and father to my daughter's David! So here is a belated Happy Birthday post! We love you.

Now to make things clear David is not the bio dad of Audrey, but he is her father and is a great man, we wouldn't have it any other way. David is however Sophias bio dad, which is hard not to see lol, I have even had people question me on Sophia being adopted but no she is mine too lol.

Davids birthday turned out to be a good day despite him having to spend the day at work, we went out and had a nice Thai dinner at a local restaurant, and I have found that I am very fond of Thai food!!

New Years eve however was brought to a halt when we received news of the passing of a close friends husband. The Family had been on Christmas vacation up North and had all gotten sick with a virus, they were able to get back to South Fl but in between frequent hospital visits the husband had a heart attack. This family is devastated and the heart break is tremendous. Loss is something that we all have to deal with and it is never easy, Life is so short and we never know when it will come to an end, while this is such a terrible tragedy and there is now a wife and multiple children left without and father and a husband, I have come to realize that it is time to savor everyday and every moment with those that we love and to not take advantage of the time that we have because nothing is forever. 

My first resolution for this year is going to be to not let the little things get me in such an up roar and to just enjoy life, love my family, and build a strong relationship with God. Just the first of my many resolutions but definitely the most important!!