E-mealz Rocks!

Have you heard about the E-mealz service? I love, love, love having my weekly menu planned and my shopping list ready each week when it's time to head to the grocery store. The meals are all fairly simple to make, i.e., hubby can even do it! I would highly suggest you head on over to their website and look around. There are sample menus showing all the different plans they have to offer. We go back and forth between the Kroger plan, which is where we shop, and the Portion Control plan, which lists Weight Watchers Points Plus values. Let me know if I can answer any questions for you, because I love talking about my E-mealz!

Day 9

Oops! I knew I wouldn't have enough going on to blog every day, but it seems I've taken a 5 day break. I didn't have one single bit of excitement going on this weekend though. I literally spent two days in and out of my bed, sleeping and watching a lot of daytime, primetime, and any other time of day soap operas. I caught up on The Young and the Restless, Grey's Anatomy, and Beverly Hills 90210 (gotta love that Soap Net), and yesterday I watched a marathon of The Lying Game, a lovely little teen drama on ABC Family Channel. This morning sickness is like the longest hangover ever! It was never this bad with my first two, thankfully. I really don't like starting this pregnancy with so much resentment towards my baby/body!

One cute thing did happen last night actually. I wish I'd have thought to take a picture, but it never crossed my mind. Maybe because I got caught up in all the giggling. My boys had just finished their bath, and ran to my bathroom to use the hair dryer to knock some of the moisture out of their hair and warm up with the warm air. They were having the best time pointing it at each other, making their hair stand up all crazy like, and warming up their hineys. Silly boys! We had to completely wet their hair again this morning to make it presentable for school, but it was totally worth all the laughter that ensued last night.

On to the healthy portion of this post...since I haven't been feeling well, I haven't been eating much. Pretzels, peanut butter, apples, and Cheerios are basically what I'm surviving on right now. If I could get rid of the Dr. Pepper (it's just one per day), I would be doing much better, but at this point I need a little caffeine. I've been drinking water and decaf tea also.

I hope everyone else is doing well in their 31 Days of Nothing Unhealthy Challenge. I've actually been doing extremely well in my 30 days of Nothing Challenge. Shopping has all but been eliminated, other than groceries. I did order two pair of pants last week, but they were for work and really a necessity since half of my clothes are already too tight to wear to work anymore. I had a 50% off coupon, and the pants were already on sale, so I got two pair of pants that were originally $70 each for $17 each. Not too shabby!

31 days of {nothing} unhealthy

I think I forgot the nothing part...

Remember how I said this was going to be a big year, well I guess I can go ahead and spill the beans to the worldwide web.

I'm six weeks pregnant with baby #3. Nausea set in on Sunday (Happy New Year to me!), and I've not hardly eaten anything, but what I have eaten hasn't been even close to healthy. Let's see how it all started.

Sunday, actually Saturday night, I prepared a Sausage and Egg Casserole for us to have for breakfast on New Year's morning. A little bit after breakfast, my stomach was growling a little, like I was still hungry, which clearly I shouldn't have been. I ignored it, and proceeded to take down the Christmas tree. About halfway through, I had to sit down, because I was super duper nauseous. And it didn't really go away that day, and it was still there on Monday. I said a little prayer on Monday night to please let Tuesday be easier, since it was a work day, and the first day of the year is super busy for me, and thankfully I was quite a bit better. Today has had it's ups and downs, but I'm thankful it's only nausea, and not going any further than that.

I've eaten fast food three days in a row. I know it's wrong, but I don't feel like cooking either. The thought of raw chicken sends a wave of nausea from my stomach to throat. I have thrown in some oatmeal and apples to try and stay on track. I really would like to have a healthy pregnancy and keep my weight in check, since I'm starting out 11 pounds heavier than in my two previous pregnancies. I've already dropped the few pounds I put on over the holidays, so that seems like a good thing.

Since the snack machine at work is now void of all Cheez-Its (you're welcome dieting co-workers), I should be good to avoid temptation, at least until it is re-stocked. I'm off to have my afternoon apple now!

The Sausage and Egg Casserole recipe, for wondering minds and recipe collectors.
From an old Southern Living cookbook. It originally called for a tomato rose as a garnish. How cute!

4 slices bread, cubed
1 1/2 pounds pork sausage
9 eggs, beaten
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Sharp cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt

Place bread cubes in bottom of a greased 2 1/2 quart baking dish; set aside.

Cook sausage until browned, stirring to crumble; drain well.

Combine sausage, eggs, milk, cheese, and salt in a large mixing bowl; stir well. Pour over bread cubes. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until golden brown and set. Remove from oven. Cut into 3-inch squares to serve.

Yield 12 servings.

Happy New Year!

It's the first day of 31 Days of Nothing Unhealthy! I'm sure everyone has varying ideas on healthy and unhealthy, so please feel free to join and make the challenge your own.

We'll be having Black Eyed Peas today to hopefully bring us good luck and prosperity in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Fooducate

Fooducate is a little blog I recently started reading. It's got some interesting topics, and health tips. Yesterday's post was about foods you should be eating, or start eating.

Sardines is #1. Hold up, they almost lost me there. The picture they showed even showed the little fish eyes. How's that supposed to convince me to crack open a can?

I think I'll skip that suggestion, but take a few others into consideration.

Unsweet tea, for example, is something I can totally get on board with. Decaf, unsweetened tea even. They posted earlied in the week about caffeine. I'm trying to keep my intake under 200mg a day, so decaf sounds like a great idea. I'm sure I'll be having some withdrawal headaches this week as I start this (part of my 31 Days of Nothing Unhealthy Challenge), but it will be nice to get all that out of my system. I'm going to need to start exercising to get a little energy built up!

Another suggestion was unsalted, dry roasted nuts. Planters now has these bags of nuts that I love, especially the cashews. Not the healthiest nut, but I really like them better than almonds. I think the ones I'm talking about are salted though. Hmph. I'll have to think twice about getting them or the unsalted ones. I thought I was doing good since there was no oil...

Hummus! Glad to see that on the list. I'd heard it was good before, so I just bought two containers of it this week--it was BOGO Free! I plan to bring one container to work with me next week, with some carrots to eat it with. Sounds pretty healthy to me.

The last food I'll mention is berries. I'm usually pretty boring and stick to strawberries as my berry of choice. I'm going to try and branch out a little, although it's really not berry season around here. Seems like I bought some frozen blueberries to snack on before, and liked them, so I'll have to see what I can find.

Hope this helps some others who are trying to eat healthier in the new year!

Coca-Cola and Classic Lay's

I'm having my last hurrah! Getting some salty and sugary in my system today at work, and it all tastes pretty stinkin good. I'm going to miss these guys next month, but just think how good I'll feel for my sacrifices!

I also worked on the family budget some today. I think I'll be doing another 30 Days of Nothing next month too. I need to crack down on all our spending. The holidays are over, so there's no more excuses. I've returned all the extra gifts, clothes that didn't fit, and stuff we never got around to using, like those red plastic plates. It felt good to have that money going back into the bank account! I've been paying around $400 per month on the last credit card we have left. I hope to save enough money in January to be able to make and extra $100 payment at the end of the month...$200 would be even better. If everything goes according to plan, and we get back what I'm expecting for our income tax return, then I think I'll have that card payed off by May. Fingers crossed!

Two days and counting!

Come January 1, I'm joining the 31 Days of Nothing Unhealthy Challenge being put on by Bushel and a Peck. I half-heartedly participated in their 30 Days of Nothing Challenge last September to see how much money I could save in a month by not buying anything that wasn't a need. I had several slip-ups that month, espcially since it was birthday month for all four of us in my family. I hope to do much better with this new challenge. I think I gained 5 pounds over the Christmas holiday, which is why I need to get my weight in check for the upcoming busy year.

So, should I be pigging out these last two days, or getting myself ready for the challenge by practicing my abstinence?