Texas Fam 5

Favorite Crock Pot Recipes & "Healthy" Additions to your diet (Coconut Oil)

Here's my LAST TWO resolutions!  I promise! I've been going thru them this past week  & hopefully my writing them down will encourage not only me but you as well to not give up on yours!  Some of the more "deeper" ones are posted in my other blog Bigger Than This.  But these are more about family, health & fun so I put the last 2 of my resolutions here...

1.  Plan my dinner menu & cook more...I think this makes the list every year, & I usually start off pretty good, but it's those really busy times of year that get me off track!  I find that the recipes on the back of things like the lipton soup secrets packages & french's fried onions are so easy & very tasty!  (I never said I was a chef!)  I've also been doing more crock-pot meals lately, & here's some of my favorite recipes...

Chicken Stroganoff  As you may notice with this recipe, my dinners are NOT designed for losing weight, although you can replace the margarine with coconut oil (one of my favorite new things, more about that as you read further) & use the lower fat cream cheese (Neufchatel) to help a little!  But this recipe is very good & the kids like it which is always a PLUS!

Beef Stew :  Just made this one a couple of days ago & YUMMY!!  The red wine gives it a great flavor & having to smell it all day was basically torture!  I only used 2 lbs of stew meat and had plenty for my family of 5 (which includes a growing 2-3 helping type teenager) and plenty leftover!

Asian Apricot Pork Loin:  This was a different taste but very good as well!  Kids just picked around the apricots but they still liked the meat & it was very tasty & tender!

Now that I've made you hungry...share some of your favorites! :)

2.  Eat more healthy & exercise...yes the dreaded exercise resolution!  Haven't done much of this yet, unless playing Dance Central 2 on the Xbox counts! :)  But the eating healthier part I've found a few great items lately I've incorporated into our diets...like Coconut oil of all things.  It is a very strange looking thing & it's not necessarily low in fat.  But as I've researched the benfits & the many uses I couldn't help but try it!  These are just a few of the benefits...

• Improving your heart health.
• Boosting your thyroid.
• Increasing your metabolism.
• Promoting a lean body and weight loss if needed.
• Supporting your immune system.

It also helps with digestive issues, which both my husband & I tend to have & with skin!  Use it on your face your feet or even on your hair challenged dog!  I know most of you don't have one of those...but I do!  Her picture is on this blog somewher & seriously if something says it helps I'm gonna try it on her...it has made her much softer & after the last 3 weeks of use (she has her OWN jar by the way), I really think she looks (and smells) better!!! 

Well so that you don't just take my word for it, there have been segments on the Dr. Oz show about coconut oil as well as articles from a respected "natural health" dr. we've always liked, Dr. Joseph Mercola & you can read more thru those links below...

Dr. Mercola, Benefits of Coconut Oil 

Dr. Oz: Coconut Oil

How do I use it?  I use it in place of butter & olive oil at times (on bread, in a recipe, on veggies instead of a little butter).  I even put a little in my coffee/tea, may sound strange but it melts & gives it a slight sweet taste & it's just an easy way for me to incorporate it into my diet.  I've used it on my face...really!  I find it works better than my regular "moisturizer"!  And as I stated above...I've used it on the dog! :)

You can probably buy it from your grocery store, sometimes in the regular oil section sometimes where the olive oil & stuff is.  It's not the cheapest but it's been worth it in our household.  I also purchase a lot of vitamins that my kids use & coconut oil & other healthy stuff we eat online thru amazon...all of these things below, I've found at area stores, but I they were more expensive.  So the free shipping & not running around to 2 or 3 different stores made it worth it for me.  I believe vitacost.com has comparable prices as well.  

Family Fun & Game Ideas

These next 3 posts (over the next few days) are some of the things I want to work on doing MORE of this year :)

Having more fun with the family: outings, day trips, hiking, camping or just game nights. Now this takes a little more planning since my husband's & now my schedule as well is a little crazy.  Even if money is tight, many things are free or signing up for sites like  GROUPON for your area is great way to save some cash. I've bought things off of their myself. They have some fun family outing type things for half or less than half the usual price at times!  Hiking at parks like Enchanted Rock (if you're in TEXAS that is) or spending the day at Inks Lake State Park are usually just the cost of the gas to get you there & the park entry fee ($10-20).

The Simple Outing:  One time my 3 kiddos & I had twenty dollars & a Saturday to spend...we figured we'd see what all we could do with it. We packed a lunch & some snacks. We went to Zilker Garden's, which is free, the kids (even the teenager) enjoyed the trails & things to see & explore there. Then we went to the other side which is Zilker Park, & went down to the springs (the free section), there we waded around & tried to catch the little fish. Then of course, since that $20 was burning a hole in our pockets, we bought tickets for the train & had enough for snowcones afterward too! 

Creative Game Ideas:  Really...quality time together is not about how much we have to spend to do it (although that can be fun!!) but really it's what you make of it! My kids will tell you some of the funnest weekends were spent playing games that they made up with the whole family...like our versions of "Clue"!  We hide all the "clue" cards throughout the house (w/ the exception of the 3 that are the answer, like the regular game).  Rules are that part of the card has to be able to be "seen" so we don't tear the house upside down looking for cards!  Then with your clue pad to mark off what you've found (it's part of the board game) we all scavenge thru the house.  First one to figure out the 3 that are missing wins...sometimes a game takes 20 min. sometimes it's taken more like 45 min.  Depends on whose hiding those cards!!! Or the fishing wire laser game their dad made up! He strings that clear fishing wire with bells (or something that makes a little noise) all thru the garage & with all lights out & flash lights shining in a few places it's like going thru a laser scene in the movies!  My kids & their friends love it! 

That's it for today!  TGIF!  Have a great weekend, get creative & have some fun! ;)

Wrote a new post in my other blog about one of the things I want to do better...Discipling my children!

http://beautifulchaos.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/01/to-disciple-my-kids-better.html

Born Again...again...

On school mornings I try to sit with the kids while they're eating their breakfast and read a devotional and the verses that go with it from the Bible.  This, somewhere in the midst of packing lunches, signing any papers, brushing hair and so on...you get the picture!  So this morning Morgan, who's 6, had questions & we talked & came back to a conversation familiar to me but not to her apparently, about accepting Christ as her Saviour.  We did this a month or so ago, also brought on by her continuing to ask questions about heaven & Jesus, but when I asked today if she remembered saying that special prayer she said, "No!", & I couldn't recall any vivid memory about it either to help remind her! 

Ah...kids, & way to go mom! :(  But, no sense wasting time feeling bad about it, I knew we never "marked" the moment with something to help her (and me for that matter) remember!  Oh the life of a 3rd child!  I remember my first child clearly, he was around the same age, at church & raised his hand to accept Christ, then he did this a few more times at Backyard Bible Clubs during the summer, I guess to make sure, just in case the first time didn't work!   Kids crack me up.  Then the 2nd child, he was a little older & in the car after seeing his brother be baptized, we marked this by making a photo book of events from his year & it's written in there.  Then the 3rd child comes along, so many more things going on now, it's hard not to get caught up in this busy thing called life. 

But today, amidst trying to rush them thru their breakfast & off to school so I could get our 16 yr old to the DMV to get his license, we stopped for a moment & she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart!  We'll make time for that!  A beautiful moment & we slowed down for a minute & talked about it and did just that...again! :)  Then off to school she went.  But this time, so that we don't forget yet again & feel the need to do this a 3rd time, I have cupcakes & candles & after dinner we will sing happy birthday to celebrate being "born again" in Christ!  Sugar ought to do the trick!  Sigh...life goes by so fast, now it's officially in the blog & I can't forget & I can help remind her if she does :)

And by the way...you now schedule driving tests ONLINE...not at the DMV!  (I will miss all this one day...right?!)

This is our 80lb American bulldog...we got a lemon to say the least, but she was from my sisters litter (a long story in itself) so we got what we got only 2 survived & she was one of them. She has issues she was born with which is why her hair is so thin or at times non-existant & in a constant state of flaking, sounds wonderful doesn't it! Even still she is like a member of the family & we love her! She often sits on the porch in a chair & reflects on life, or at least that's what she looks like she's doing! It just always makes me laugh to see her sitting there like a person! Animals, they really do bring a bit of humor & joy to ones life...and lots of vacuuming, expensive dog food & vet bills, but...whatever!