Delicious Pasta

I used to meal plan constantly and stock up on items that I knew me and my husband would eat. Unfortunately, when I got pregnant, I stopped doing that because I was so tired. However, now that the little man is here I'm back to meal planning and pinching every penny I can. 'Cause damn kids are expensive.

So this post I'm going to talk about one meal that I make that is will be three meals for the hubby and I. It's a zucchini, mushroom and pasta dish. I love it! I found the recipe from Damn Delicious

The original recipe calls for:

1 pound pasta
2 zucchini chunked
1 bag frozen peas
16 oz cremini mushrooms
2 cloves garlic sliced
4 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Now the recipe that DD gives says to put the water, garlic, mushrooms, peas, zucchini and pasta in the pot. Once the water is reduced then add the heavy cream and parm cheese. Having it this way is declicious. It'll come out looking like this:

I make it this way the first night, and then the second night to change it up I put in some sweet Italian sausage in it. I usually use the sausage patties and break them apart but you can use anything type that you want.

Once the sausage is cooked heat the leftover pasta in a large sauce pan. Add the sausage, some more cream and parm cheese to it. Turn the burner to a medium low heat- you want it to heat up all the way through without burning the bottom. Make sure to stir often. Once it's heated all the way through enjoy. This meal feeds the two of us for 3-4 nights, depending on how much is eaten for lunch.

New Years Resolution

Like I said yesterday, I have had some challenges with keeping up on the blog. I'm going to try and do at least one post a day because I really want to make a go at blogging. So, today's post is going to be about the workout routine I stopped doing after two weeks. Unfortunately, I was so overwhelmed with going back to work and taking care of my little bug that it fell by the wayside. Then two weeks ago when my dishwasher broke, it fell even further down the list of things on my to do list.

So, my New Years resolution is to start a fast and simple work out plan that is easy and can be built upon. I've searched Pinterest and found one that looks doable without a lot of fuss. It's 4 exercises done 4 times. It can't get much simpler then that. I will set a goal of doing the workout at least 4 times a week and adding in some cardio by walking (weather permitting). Since there is a theme of the number 4,  I'm going to do the work out for 4 weeks and see if it had any results. I'll report back weekly on my progress, The workout I found is below, It is from the site She Rocks Fitness, which can be found here,



**Note: I am not being compensated in anyway to review this.

Losing One of My Best Friends

Well, my master plan of blogging, taking care of my son, keeping up with my housework and working full time was an utter failure. I haven't felt like blogging because I'm constantly so tired that I'm usually in bed and asleep before 9:30 pm.  We also had a loss in our family. My sweet dog of 10 years had to be put down two weeks ago. Two months ago he was diagnosed with lymphoma. We kept him comfortable for a month and a half. Unfortunately, we had to make the decision to put him down because he was in pain. At the end he couldn't get up on his own and had obvious discomfort when walking. For the last 10 years he was my friend, child and companion. Luke was my first child and left a significant mark on my life. So, I feel that it is up to me to tell his story.

Luke helping me make jewelry.

When I graduated from college my parents wanted to give me a special gift. Luke was a rescue dog from Virginia that ended up in Vermont. He was living with a dog trainer because he had some special needs due to prior abuse. Before ending up with the trainer Luke had 5 owners and his quirks had three families return him to the shelter. The trainer only allowed me to adopt Luke after I interviewing me and meeting my family. My parents picked him up from her three weeks before I was done with school. I came home the next weekend to bring home a load of stuff and to be with him.

Our first meeting was interesting, he was skittish and wanted nothing to do with me. That is until he saw me petting and loving the family cat. At that point he realized I was good people and we were bff's ever since. I found out quickly he was a one woman dog, and he merely tolerated everyone else. My poor, patient husband often found himself growled and barked at, especially if he was approaching me or entering a room I was in.

After my graduation, I moved back in with my parents (thankfully only for a short time, but that's another story). The first few weeks were an adjustment, he was only a year old and was full of energy. He loved running and playing fetch, he could chase a ball for hours. However, I soon found that he would start limping after these long hours. His back left hip would cause him pain, which for a young dog was not normal. I brought him to my family vet and they did x-rays on his hip. The x-ray showed that he had bone fragments and scar tissue between the head of his leg bone and the hip socket. The vet believed it was from prior abuse, likely being kicked. After discussing the risks and benefits, I had the vet surgically remove the fragments and scar tissue, which gave him more mobility and stopped him from being in pain.

The mental trauma was a fear he carried with him his entire life. Even though he was truly loved and given the best care, he was still scared of men and showed that fear by barking and growling. He would become very agitated when he felt cornered, he would bark and growl at the person he felt was cornering him. Thankfully, even though it never fully went away, it did lessen with time.

Being Luke's human changed my life. Trying to help him with his fears and insecurities gave me a first hand view of how abuse can leave a permanent mark. I will never view animal abuse or rescue animals the same way I did before Luke entered my life.

RIP Luke

Week One-Day Six

I wasn't able to post earlier because life got really crazy. Between my first day back at work and leaving my little guy at daycare for the first time, today was awful.

Even though I wasn't able to get my shake in, I was able to do a partial workout. I got three quarters of the way done before my little man decided he needed attention.

Dinner tonight was a wonderful chicken taco rice dish. Another great recipe from Pinterest, it had ground chicken, onion, salsa, black beans and rice. We altered the recipe a little bit so instead of using your own seasonings we used a packet of taco seasoning and tortilla shells to make an awesome burrito.

So, overall today feels like a win. 😃

Fitbit Flex is a no go

I found my Fitbit but I'm not going to be able to use it right now. The metal band seemed to work okay but I didn't like wearing it because it caught on my son. I tried to go back to the regular band. Sadly, I broke out into a rash again. The metal band is very pretty and I found it on Amazon.

The band I used was the a standard Fitbit Flex band. 

And this is the rash I broke out in. 

Once my son is a little older, maybe I'll try to use the metal band again. It's just a little too bulky to wear while he's so young and needs to be held all the time. 

Week One - Day Five

I realized I started the post for yesterday, but didn't post it. So, instead of doing a day four I'm just going to move onto day five. 

Yesterday: I didn't have my daily shake but I had an overall healthy eating day. I found a really yummy healthy lemon chicken on Pinterest. Yesterday was also a rest day, so, I didn't workout but I did stay very active doing things around the house. 

Now onto today! I'm going back to work on Monday, which means I need to get a ton of stuff done. My list to get done before I start back is: 

Laundry- caught up, folded & put away
Dinner- prep 2-3 dinners so I don't have a lot of prep work to do when I first go back
Clean/re-org office space- I work from home and I haven't been in my office for 8 weeks, so, I need to get in there and do a quick once over
Trash- today is trash day (if the weather clears up) I will run it to the dump
Wrap x-mas gifts- I want to have all the gifts wrapped so I'm not worrying about this Thurs & Fri
Pack up my maternity clothes- I'm no longer in them so there is no reason to have them in my closet anymore
General Cleaning- I want to do a general deep clean around the whole house, so, Monday evening I'm not stressing

I'm also drinking my yummy shake this morning. I had to throw the berries away because they were really disgusting. So, I'm back to my green shakes. I used spinach, apples, pears, honey, chia seeds and cinnamon.

Since I'm positing in the morning, I'll try to do a quick post this evening with an update on my list. If I can't, then you'll get the update tomorrow.

Stretch marks from Pregnancy

During my pregnancy I carried only in the front. Despite my constant use of baby oil and lotions, I got severe stretch marks on my lower stomach.

I did a little bit of searching and found there are a ton of different products that say they will reduce stretch marks. After reading reviews for tons of products, one stood out to me. Art Naturals® Stretch Mark & Scar Removal Cream. I found it on Amazon for $16.00. It stood out because the reviwers felt strongly enough to post pictures of how well it worked for them and most raved about the product,



I will be using twice a day for the 4 weeks that I'm doing the exercise program and at the end I will provide a photo of what my stretch marks look like then and a review of how I feel the product worked.

**Note: This review was done completely on my own. I have no affiliation and am not being compensated for anything I say about this product.**