Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Hey everyone!

Thanks for stopping by! :) Things have been busy around here, little man may not be in school, but it seems like the school year hit us hard anyways. I have been super busy planning our next year of primary and trying to get organized before the holidays hit. Yes, I just mentioned the holidays! September is already half way gone! We have about six weeks until Halloween, and you know how time flies after that. Have you decided what the kids will dress up as? Or what you will for that matter? My little guy keeps changing his mind, anything from Hulk, to Ironman, to Superman, and now to The Little Mermaid. Shhh...don't tell his daddy. ;)

Anyways, I kind of made up a new recipe last night that I wanted to share. Now that it's getting cooler and my house doesn't feel like a sauna when I cook, I felt like making a hot, healthy meal. I've been wanting to try my hand at stuffed peppers again, so I just dove in.

Here is the final product:

What you'll need:

4 Green peppers (or red or yellow, or a variety)
1 yellow onion
2.5 cups brown rice cooked
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained (I didn't have any, so I just left it out and it was still good)
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup enchilada sauce
Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Seasoning
1.5 cups Medium Cheddar cheese
Olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Get a casserole dish and line the bottom with wax paper.

2. Slice the peppers so you can stuff them. I just sliced off the top, but you could cut them length wise as well. Rinse them out and coat them lightly with olive oil. I just used a spray. Place these on the prepared dish and pop them in the oven for maybe ten minutes or so.

3. Brown the ground beef with the chopped yellow onion. Rinse and place in a large bowl. Combine the black beans, corn, rice, and beef and onion mixture together. Stir well.

4. Add in the enchilada sauce slowly, tasting often. You may find you don't need as much or maybe you'd like more. Sprinkle Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Seasoning throughout in the same way you added the enchilada sauce. You want to do this to taste, I probably used between 1-1.5 Tablespoons. But I'm also a wimp, and you may like it more spicy than this.

5. Add about 1/2-3/4 C of cheese. I added this last so it didn't get too melted.

6. Stuff the peppers and top with the remaining cheese. Place them back on the casserole dish and bake another 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted on top.

Voila! Now all you have to do is enjoy!

**Note, I made these and ended up with extra mixture. I threw the rest in a zip lock baggie and froze it. If you need more then 4 servings, you will probably be able to get more out of this if you just get more cheese to top it off with.**

I love stuffed peppers because they're so easy, taste good, and are good for you. They're also so versatile. Switch out ground turkey for ground beef, or even shredded chicken would be yummy. Paleo diet? Knock out the rice and corn add different varieties of beans and more onion. You can do so many things with it, and it can be changed to fit practically any diet.

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Snack Ideas for Nursery

I posted last week about Nursery Helps, and I wanted to follow up with this. Nursery is a hard calling. I honestly think that the Lord puts special people in Nursery, and that's how it should be. The children need so much love, attention, and creativity.

Snack time is important for Nursery aged children, not only does it eat up some time (yeah I said it), but it keeps them from getting hungry, aka cranky. But you have to be careful what you feed them. If you stuff them full of sugar and cookies, prepare yourself for another hour of meltdowns, screaming, and chaos. And since I'm sure you are going to have awesome things planned for that hour that do not include any of those things, it's probably better to avoid that whenever possible. So I wanted to post a few ideas on what to bring for snacks, that kids will eat. Every child is different, but maybe this will help you brainstorm.

PLEASE remember to ask parents/guardians about allergies before feeding their child anything!! Write this down in a "Nusery Binder/Folder" so when your not there, whoever is filling in will know.

1. Pretzels. I have met few children that don't like pretzels. Even my son, who has parents that don't really care for them, likes pretzels.

2. Fruits/veggies. Children love fruit. My son would rather have a tomato or strawberry over a cookie. Yes, it's true. Fruit does have sugar in it, but it's not going to get them wound up like frosting on a cupcake would.

3. Graham Crackers with peanut butter. The peanut butter has protein in it that will help keep them full and kids love graham crackers!

4. Yogurt covered raisins. My son would eat these all day if I let him. Seriously, he doesn't like raisins, but when they're yogurt covered, game on.

5. String cheese. Store in the fridge until snack time and have your assistant go grab it.

6. Applesauce. They make them in the pouches they can just slurp up now, no spoon feeding, perfect for nursery! They also have smoothies and other things in those same pouches, so you can mix it up.

7. Roaring waters Capri Sun. I believe it only have 7g of sugar, so it's a good drink option.


So what do you guys love using in Nursery for snack? Any go-to items?

5 Random Things to Help a Case of the Mondays

Monday's are not my favorite. Like a lot of people, I am just so sad to see the weekend go. I come into work, get some things done, but end up getting way to distracted with things. I figured I'd post a couple of the neat things I've found today, share my randomness. :)


1.  This adorable outfit! I'm wondering how hard it can be to make a cardigan like this. I love that shade of blue skirt. **Please note, I tried to link this up to where my pinterest said it came from, but it looks like the page was taken down. If anyone knows who this is, or knows where I can give it proper credit, let me know and I will!**

 

 

 

 

2. 12 Hunger-fighting Salads! I wonder how they are, because that is totally my issue with salads. I never feel full afterwards!

 

 

 

3. This blog has an adorable "Artist's Tote." The directions are all in another language, but it inspired me. :)

 

4.This blogger did an Elf on the Shelf breakfast the day the Elf came for the season! I know it's early in the season, I just can't wait. I am so excited to my little guys' Elf!

 

5. This post is 30 unique Date Night things for couples. There were actually some good ones on there! It gets you thinking, you got to mix it up sometimes!

 

 

What did you guys find while surfing the web today? I know I can't be the only one who gets distracted on Mondays!

 

Please note, the pictures in this post are not mine. They are from the respective blogs I linked up to.

30 Day Shred Update

So I am supposed to be about 20 days through the 30 Day Shred by now. If you have been following along you would have seen that I haven't lost any weight pounds wise, but I have seen improvement inches wise. My results are still pretty consistent with my last post that you can find HERE. 

About day 12 the top of my knee started really bothering me. It would hurt mostly during the jump rope part and afterwards when I went to sit down. I used to run in high school and got a knee injury that I still have issues with today, but this was a little different. Just in case, I decided to ice it and wrap it up like I used to in my running days. I gave it a few more tries, and if it hurt I just would do a different cardio move that didn't bother me so much. I was planning on doing this for the rest of the 30 days. Well about day 15 my son caught croup. For the past 5 days he hasn't let me put him down, so I haven't been able to do the shred like I've wanted too. I took this opportunity to rest my knee and try and recover. I have done her Yoga Meltdown about three times in the past 5 days to be easy on my knee and still get some exercise in. Plus my son thinks the poses are funny, so I get a bit more time this way. ;)

So instead of being on day 20 I'm kind of paused on day 15. :/ I'm honestly really bummed about this and it's been pretty hard on me. I have actually cried a few times because I want to work out and haven't been able too. Yes, I cried because I wanted to work out. Sounds crazy huh? Well, that's the biggest change I've noticed during this process. It's changed my attitude towards working out. I originally wanted to see what kind of results you could get just doing the shred, so I wasn't trying to alter my diet or anything for the 30 days. I have found that I am actually having a hard time with this because I want to eat better. I want to make a salad instead of going out. I know this sounds crazy, but this is just what I've found. It's really helped me to be motivated to make positive changes in my life. 

So I am adding on a week to the shred results. I was originally going to post up my results on March 22, so I am now going to post them March 29th. I am really hoping to see some major improvements, despite my set backs. If not, at least I've gotten a little healthier and stronger for other work out programs, which I do intend on trying.


SO stay tuned and come back in two weeks to check out the results! I'm excited about this!

7 Day Check In

It's been 7 days since I started the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and so far, I haven't lost any weight. I'm not too frustrated though because I've been reading about a lot of other peoples experience with this and it seems that it's normal to not lose a ton of weight. It seems like most people only lose a few pounds, but that you can see the difference in inches and tone, which is exactly what I want. Not that I wouldn't mind losing a few pounds while I'm at it. ;) 

I can say that one week into it, I definitely feel stronger. I am more able to do push ups and weights. I am able to jump higher and the video doesn't seem so long anymore. It really flies by. My husband says that he can tell in my legs and bum that I am toning up more. So I think it is going to work good. 

The ab workouts she does haven't been very difficult for me and they haven't been leaving me sore. I'm considering working in the 300 ab challenge to it. I kind of don't want to though because I want to see what kind of results you can do with only the video. The only thing diet wise that I've done differently is trying to stay away from the soda. I haven't been 100% good but I have definitely cut back a lot. 

So far:

Weight: 0 change

Waist: -.5 inches

Around belly button: -.5 inches

Hips: 0 change

Arms: 0 change

Thighs: -.25 inches

These aren't amazing results or anything so far, but it's only been a week and I can feel the difference already. I'm hoping the 30 day results will be a lot more drastic. :)

Stay tuned to see the final results!!

Jillian Michaels, We're No Longer Friends...

...but we will be if you can kick my butt into good shape. ;) I started the 30 Day Shred yesterday for the bazillionth time. I'm hoping to keep with it and post my before and after pics on March 22. So stay tuned. Oh and all the motivation and encouragement possible would be appreciated. She's a tough one ;)

Spinach Chips Recipe

Okay, I know, this doesn't sound good. Or at least it didn't to me at first. I hope it sounds good to you. But after reading a bunch of really good reviews, and buying way too much spinach for my quiches a few days ago, I decided to give it a go. I figured, worst case scenario I have to throw it all away, I probably would have done that anyways. I am the worst at using spinach. And to top it off, of course it comes in the buy one get one free deals. So you have to get two. 

Anyways, I found this recipe on Pinterest, and followed it closely. In it she suggests getting creative and using red pepper flakes, among other things. Well, Saturday I went to an Amish Market by us and bought a big tub of it for hardly anything. So I was waaay too excited to use it. My husband thought that and garlic powder sounded okay, so I did half of my cookie sheet just salt and pepper, 25% red pepper flakes, and 25% garlic powder. 

I was really excited to try the red pepper flakes, so as soon as they came out of the oven and cooled off a bit, I popped one of those babies in my mouth. Boy, did I have the wrong idea what that would taste like!! I thought it was like a green pepper, well, let me tell you, it was not. It was really hot. I am probably the only person in the world who didn't know that, so go ahead laugh at me, it's okay. But I won't be making that mistake twice. My hubs liked them though. So no harm no foul. I really liked the salt and pepper, to be honest I couldn't taste the garlic powder (perhaps I just burnt all my taste buds off), so I would suggest against that. But salt and pepper was really good. They were light, crunchy and I was sad when they were gone. I mean it. I never thought I'd say I wish I had more spinach anything. So there you go, if you have any left over spinach you need to use up, bake it in the oven, and make some chips out of it. I'm going to make some tomorrow night and try it with salsa. We didn't even get that far yesterday.

Now for how to do this. You can follow the link I listed above, which is essentially what I did, but I will include pictures below too.

I cleaned and dried the spinach. I drizzled about 1/2 tablespoon over it and mixed it with my hands. It spread really easily. Honestly, use less then you think you need. You can always add more. 

I think laid them out over a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. The parchment paper worked well for me. Wax paper would probably work too. I then sprinkled the seasonings on top. You can do this to your hearts content.

Bake at 250 degrees for about 20 minutes or so. The blog I posted earlier said to check on them frequently after 15 minutes, and that hers took about 30. My oven is kind of quick, so I think that she gave good advice.