Healthy Baked Ziti

Ok so it is getting kind of ridiculous that I have a recipe tab and it only has one lonely recipe in it. I cook all the time so I am not sure why that is. Part of me feels like posting recipes is boring and nobody wants to read them, but then I think how many blogs I follow for their recipes. Either way I am hitting ya'll with three tonight.

I am kind of turning into a casserole girl here lately. For one I was kind of getting bored with the crock pot and two I am loving that I can make these at any time of the day, stick it in a casserole dish, pop it in the fridge and simply stick it in the oven around dinner time. They freeze well too which is a definite plus. I keep telling myself I am going to cook a bunch of casserole dishes on Sunday to freeze them for the week so I won't have to cook. That has yet to happen.

Here it is in all its yummy glory

Healthy Baked Ziti

This is what you need.

Side note: We buy a half a cow each year and I forgot to take a pic before I took the packaging off. The initial investment seems like a lot but it is so much healthier (no hormones, etc..) and you save money in the long run. I will try to blog about it soom

Cook the meat and pasta.

I strongly recommend using wholewheat pasta where ever possible

When the meat and pasta are looking close to ready, mix the cheeses and eggs

I rinse the meat to shave a few more calories off

Stir the pasta in with the cheeses

Stir spagetti sauce in with meat

Now the fun part, start layering with 1/3 of your meat

Now add 1/2 your pasta/cheese mixture

 

Continue layering ending with your meat. Now just pop it in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes

This is the leftovers after feeding 4 adults, just to give you an idea.

Our family is big on leftovers. 

This is definitely a family fav. I love it because you don't need a lot of ingredients and it is fairly simple. I heart anything that is healthy and yummy.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces whole wheat ziti or other small tube pasta
• 2 pounds ground beef/ ground turkey
• 1 (28 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce. In a bowl, combine the eggs, ricotta cheese, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
2. Drain pasta; add to cheese mixture and toss to coat. Spoon a third of the meat sauce into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish; top with half of the pasta mixture. Repeat layers. Top with remaining meat sauce.
3. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.                

Heavy on the pictures with a side of humble

We had a relaxing and exciting weekend however; I do wish the weather could make up its mind on what season it needs to be. This time of year always gives my allergies a workout. We actually started working on our housing renovations which makes me giddy inside.

Crewe took his job very seriously. Honestly he was just way beyond tired and we were willing to do anything to get through the bajillion measurments we had to take.

Giving ourself a little mirror love.



We scrapped a ton of popcorn of our ceilings and it officially looks like we got an inch of snow on the inside. I cannot wait to get some before and after pics up.

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Crewe likes to collect ALL the pens of the seats at the end of the church service. He does so well through most of the service, but towards the end it is hard to contain him.

So our service today is where I got served my side of humble. Since we are doing all the renovations to our house I am constantly thinking about everything I want to do and how we will be able to afford it all. And I will only be happy (key the 5 year old whiney voice) "If we can get it all done NOW'. I dont wanna wait.

That being said, our entire service was focused on the sense of entitlement we all carry and how we need to focus on getting rid of our ungrateful heart in replacement for a heart of gratitude. Exchange looking at a situation as "why can't this be done now" for "look at all that we can do now". I don't know about ya'll, but this is something I definitely need to keep in check, because I can definitely have my moments of being a Negative Nancy when stairs don't align for a situation.

And that's the Gospel truth.

Back to the rest of our weekend.

Crewe likes to go to bed with his hair on "Fi-yah", as his daddy puts it.

 Hope everyone had a great weekend and is adjusting to springing forward. Crewe didn't think it was such a hot change and decided to not go to sleep until 10:45. Here's hoping for a restful night!

$30 Dolla Holla!

Happy Saturday everyone! It is dreary and cold here. We are starting the remodel of our house today, so project demo is underway, but I wanted to quickly mention that I am being featured over at The Vanilla Tulip today. Come on over and meet Ashley and her precious family.

(Source)

Gorgeous, huh? She is a sweetie with some wonderful ideas on being Thrifty. She has 3 babes under the age of 4 and is a fun momma to know.

Oh and I should mention that there is a $30 Dolla Holla giftcard to Hobby Lobby up for grabs. Just a little motivation if you read my page to become a follower. You must be a follower of my blog and The Vanilla Tulip. Just leave a comment under her post, featuring me, letting Ashley know you have done both and that's it, you are qualified.

Seriously go do it! Who doesn't like Hobby Lobby!

What pecans can teach you

Nothing can get me in a tizzy quite like running late. I have a hard time feeling like I do not have plenty of time to get something completed before I have to be somewhere or enough time in my day to get the dreaded to do list completed.

Some days I just throw the to do list out the window, but it never fails to catch on a wind current and blow right back in my face, "Screaming you cannot function without me". It is madness I tell you. Learning to function and go with the flow has never been a strong point for me, but that's okay because I have made it work up until about 15 months ago.

Everyday I function off a to do list much like what I did prior to becoming a momma and I still to think it is appropriate to do the same. Really? Yes I really think that everyday I can complete the same number of tasks that I could before I had a baby. Times change when you have Dr. Appts and such to fit in. (15 month post coming soon).

Something has to change, but change is hard. It is like a bad habit that I can't quit, but I am noticing myself getting a little more irritated as the days go on and it is all from the dreaded, mile long to do list always looming over my head. Somedays it seems like my to do list is just daily life and wish I didn't feel so frustrated because, HELLO, everyone has stuff to do! 

My word of the year has been intentional. I want to be intentional in all aspects of my life therefore the to do list must be cut down, not eliminated all together, YET. Baby steps here.

 I have been going to bed (I am a thinker at bedtime) remembering the day and feeling that so many of the days are spent shuffling Crewe around the house just so I can mark stuff off my to do list. Or I am frustrated right when my husband walks through the door because I still have (fill in a number) things to get done. That is when I realized a change is in order.

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Crewe helped his momma figure this out today during our daily pecan hoarding.  

He is a pecan fanatic. I mean call in an intervention kind of fanatic. I watched him toddle around filling his chubby little hands with as many pecans as he could carry. Then out of the corner of his eye he would see one more he just had to try a squish in his already full hands. This is when it dawned on me. This is just what I do with my days everyday. Always trying to fit one more thing into an already full  to do list, where there is just no room left.

Crewe was unwilling to leave any pecan behind and determined to keep them all held close to his body, safe from falling. It didn't matter how frustrated he got when he picked a new pecan up only to have another fall out of his hand. He was going to keep trying to find a way to make them all fit rather than picking the one's that he wanted the most and leaving the other's behind.

 

Then he could have given the most important pecans more attention.

 

Granted his thought process is not that developed yet, but it reminded me so much of what I do to myself every.single.day in having an unachievable to do list. Adding and adding, refusing to let the subpar take a back seat or simply be put into a pocket for a later date. (Crewe puts overflow pecans into pockets).

 

I am beginning to realize they will always be there to go back to.  

Thank you my sweet 15 month old for keeping your momma in check!

Pretty sure I just said "to do list" fifty times in this post.

How many calories do I need anyway???

In starting on a healthy lifestyle, it is so important to know how many calories you should be eating a day to make sure you stay on track. All calories are not created equal either. If you target caloric intake is 1800 a day, do not make that 1800 come from 1 meal and then not eat the rest of the day. This will cause you metabolism to plummet. Even though it appears you are consuming less calories by eating only one meal a day your body goes into a starvation mode and holds onto everything you eat, good and bad, because it thinks it will not get the nutrition it needs again. Your goal should be to keep you metabolism running fast and steady all day.

A quote I try and live by is, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper."

This way you are fueling your body with the most amount of food that will be burned off during the day through activity versus putting way too many calories in your body right before you are in bed and inactive.

You achieve this by eating regularly throughout the day. It took me a long time to believe this. My body could easily function on just eating a big dinner. I rarely thought about food the rest of the day, but it wasn't until  I listened to my husband and starting eating throughout the day that I achieved my fitness goals.

So lets figure out how many calories you need.

1. Calculate you Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)- the calories you need to breathe, grow hair, blink, essentially be alive:

Your Body Weight x 10 = RMR

or

ex. 130 x 10 = 1300

2. Now calculate you daily activity burn- the calories you need for daily movement aside from exercise.

Your RMR x 20% = Daily activity burn

or

ex. 1300 x 20% = 260

3. Now you will add you RMR and your daily activity burn plus what you burn through exercise.

You will need to decide what you burn a day in exercise. That number is variable. In my opinion 200 to 300 is a safe number for moderate activity, 600 for intense training.

RMR + Daily activity burn + Exercise burn = Energy amount needed

or

ex. 1300 + 260 + 300 = 1860 calories to eat a day to maintain your weight

Now if you are wanting to lose weight you will need to create a deficit from that 1860. I usually start by subtracting 300 calories a day. My next post will discuss easy ways to cut calories without cutting taste to help with this.

So that drops us down to 1560 calories a day. Our of those calories you want 40% of the calories to be from carbs, 30% from fat, and 30% from protein.

Lets break it down:

1560 x .4 = 624 (carbs)

1560 x .3 = 468 (fat)

1560 x .3 = 468  (protein)

This is where My Fitness Pal is a gem. It will keep track of the break down for you. I have the app downloaded on my phone. Once you set up your account it will spit out the number of calories you need to consume a day to meet your weight loss or maintenance goals. I personally prefer the formula above, but regardless both the number you get from above and from my fitness pal should be similar.

This will be your home screen and you add all the food you have eaten in the My Diary tab at the bottom

The My Diary tab takes you to this.

Clicking on Add will take you to this screen.

From there you will click on the meal and add your food. This app has every food you can dream of and even the capabilities for you to scan the bar code on a food. So cool!

The last screen I use is the Daily tab that is on your home page. It lets you know where you stand and what you have left for the day . The white circle is where you will find your carbs, fat, protein ratios you figured out above and want to stay within.

Unfortunately will have have to log in on-line to change those ratios. The app doesn't offer that feature, but after you do make changes it will automatically sync it to your phone.

Go here and click on Goals

Which will take you here. You want Custom

Put in your 40/30/30 and click Save Changes

Sorry about the picture quality! I was taking the pic off my computer with my phone.

This has turned into the longest.post.ever, so I will end there.

If this post left you feeling confused

Please send me any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Happy almost Thursday!

Healthy Habits

It seems like I have more and more of my friends asking me or my husband for advice on nutrition, health, and work out routines. I by no means have all the answers when it comes to these categories, but have always tried to live a relatively healthy lifestyle and in the process have come up with some excellent tactics to make healthy eating and living- lively, yummy and affordable. From sweet fixes to healthy easy meals, this portion of my blog will cover it all.

This is my husbands transformation

His transformation is one of the most inspiring to me because I know this man loves to eat and we knew our eating had to be a lifestyle change. That initial picture was taken over a year ago. If I can get the guts to put a picture up of me in a swimsuit I will show my transformation. Guys just don't care about that stuff.

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Some of the topics swirling in my head that I will be discussing:

-Ways to cut calories in your everyday eating without sacrificing taste

- Formula to figure out how many calories you need a day to fuel your body

- Easy ways to track your calories

- How many calories you burn and hour doing certain activities

- Why eat whole wheat versus white

(Source)

- Low calorie sweet fixes

- Exercising from basic to advanced

-Why to NOT always rely on the scale - And other places to look for weight loss

(Source)

My goal will be to have 1 Healthy Habit topic of discussion a week.

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Hands down what you put in you body to fuel it is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of creating healthy habits. Trust me when I say this you can bust your butt in the gym, or at home and will never see the full results of your hard work without having the right diet in place.

Now let me dispel one of the biggest issues with the word DIET. Through the years there have been so many so called “diets” where a person commits to eating a certain type of food, or pre-packaged meals, and they are promised the weight loss of their dreams. The problem with those “diets” is they are hard to maintain for the long haul and can take a chunk out of any grocery budget. You can read more about our budget here.


So where do you start? Follow along with me and as long as you COMMITT you WILL see result. Whether your committment is walking 30 minutes a day 5 days a week to working toward running a 5K OR cutting out 2 fast food meals a week for a healthy smoothly ( I have a great recipe) and a turkey wrap. Commitment is the key.

Stay tuned on Wednesday for-

"How in the world do I figure out how many calories I need" and navigating My Fitness Pal.

Happy Monday!

Insta Friday

Just a little week recap via instagram photos.

Just a boy and his balloons

When you live in West Texas and the wind blows 30 mph 5 days a week you have to make comprises. Our's you ask? We play in the garage with my little horned baby

Yay for Aunts that work at fun stores!

Filling up on his morning coffee in preparation for the fight that would go down between himself and a pile of wood later that day. The wood won!

The excitement that surrounds our days

Mommy and me portrait and some daddy time.

And two oldies but goodies! The bitter beer face and the thinker!

As you can tell! Mommyhood easily consumes my day by a landslide. 

You can link up for this fun post

Oh and if you have a few minutes read about her story. It is pretty amazing and inspirational. Put my day in and day out groans into perspecitve.

Happy Friday Friends!