Fast And Easy Summertime Meals

Isn’t it too bad that we still need to eat in the summer months? Who really wants to spend time in the kitchen when the sun is shining? Maybe some of you but for me, cooking in the summer months is a waste of good summer time sunshine. And the way I fix this is making simple, fast, and affordable meals that I can easily throw together in half and hour or less.

For me, soup would always be the answer but since neither my son or husband will eat soup in the summer months I find I need to get a bit more creative. So what do I do, I make salads or stuff veggies with almost anything. And depending on what I have in the house at the time it usually is never the same salad twice. Very much like soup…you can throw anything into a bowl, top it with some type of dressing, and call it a salad.

Today I thought I would share with you some of our favorite summer time meals as of lately. These are not recipes by any means, just some ideas to inspire you to get creative and maybe step out of that box and take a risk. Your may find your family will enjoy it as much as you enjoy not slaving over a hot stove or oven on a beautiful sunny summer day.

In a half hour or less I have prepared:

quinoa and kale salad with a homemade dressing, kalamata olives, and feta cheese

stuffed poblano peppers

tuna pasta salad with fresh dill

BLT salad

smoked salmon salad with orzo, dill vinaigrette, feta, olives, and asparagus

seven layer salad paired with shrimp po boy sandwiches

black bean burger salad

chicken salad for topping salads or making sandwiches

stuffed zucchinis

Looks good doesn’t it? I can assure you they are all very easy and fast or I would not have made them. As I said, it’s pretty much what I had in the house at the time, so of course, I did not write down any recipes and we may never see any of these again for that simple reason. However, if you see something you like go ahead and ask, I may be able to recall what I did and share it with you.

 

 

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Fitness and Food In Week #1 of 2017

The first week in 2017 proved to be a challenge but ultimately was successful. Having Monday off was wonderful which meant we could go to the gym anytime of day to try and avoid the crowd which we did with success. Tuesday-Friday the gym was plain old crazy busy so I avoided it like the plague. (We have inside information since our son works at our gym)

All my daycare children returned to normal schedule…..but routine took awhile to find once again. Plus, they all brought back a cold virus of some sort so we shared in all these germs as well. Don’t we all love the holidays?

Being it’s the first week of the new year and I had my hands full during the week with numerous things among a house full of children…..I am pretty happy with my workouts this week.

Sunday: almost a 3 mile hike New Years Day

plus a home total body weight circuit

Monday: gym: 45 minutes elliptical, rowing, stretching

Tuesday: home: total body weight circuit, 3 mile evening walk outside

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: home: total body weight circuit, 3 mile lap walk at the mall

Friday: rest

Saturday: gym:45 minute elliptical, rowing and stretching

Meals this week were all eaten at our dining room table as a family except for one evening our son was gone. His work schedule changed with the new year and this makes dinner planning much easier. Plus, we all get to eat together, something we have not been able to do for quite sometime. On the menu this week we enjoyed sloppy joe salad with burger fixings. I simply take ground turkey and my homemade sloppy joe sauce and prepare the burger. Then I take salad fixings that would normally be on a cheese burger and plate them up with a serving of sloppy joe meat on top and drizzle it with dijon mustard. Yum!

Another dinner was Swedish meatballs over pasta. Super easy and a great comfort food in the winter months.

One night was tortilla soup….a family favorite.

And Friday we had breakfast for dinner…..which was homemade waffles with my homemade chicken breakfast sausage.

The next two weeks will prove to be an exciting time if we can pull off everything we have planned. However,  there are some big factors involved that could really hamper our plans. My goals are to stay positive that it will all work out, we will see everything we are hoping to see, and I will finally have part of my “life plan” in place by the time we are done. Now, let’s just hope the stars line up and it all plays out perfectly.

 

Another Weekend of Frigid Temps

My husband thinks I freeze much faster than he does thanks to my very low blood pressure. I thinks I freeze simply because it’s freezing. Now normally I  would research his statement and see if he is correct, but you know what? It really does not matter to me, either way I still freeze and I do not like it!!! OK, enough complaining, let’s move on.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to make our way to Milwaukee for a day of shopping. I could hear the wicked winds blowing outside before even raising my head from the pillow and knew it would be a “soup for lunch” kind of day. Since we already had plans to enjoy lunch at Whole Foods I was pretty happy. Although, before lunch could happen we had to get some shopping done.

Usually I get to this area twice, maybe three times a year. So when I do, I stock up on all our favorites, especially from Trader Joe’s. After TJ’s we traveled to REI, which is bound to cost a few bucks and take a lot of time. Since we are outdoor enthusiasts this is by far our favorite sporting goods store. On Saturday it just happened to be their “garage sale day” which means tons and tons of great deals:) We must have spent almost two hours in this one store but left with so many goodies. I was very happy with the results.

Saturday night we celebrated Valentine’s Day with my hubby making bread bowl smoked salmon salads for us. (My absolute favorite) Again, with the frigid temps lingering on we found ourselves just hanging out the rest of the day. It was really quite nice to say the least.

Onto other things….how are you all doing with the February health challenge of forgoing fast food for February? It’s it a struggle? You are half way done, are you hanging in there? I have to say, being that I work from home and we very rarely do fast food, I am not really struggling with this one. I have not done fast food, such as McDonald’s for at least 8 years, probably more. This is one thing I am pretty thankful for. It was a hard habit back then to break, but I don’t miss it what so ever.

You know what started creeping into my mind last week? Our Spring chore list…..is it too early for that? Well….maybe a bit.

How was your weekend?