For the record...

So, we're pregnant with our fourth baby and we couldn't be more thrilled! Right now, we have three beautiful boys that we love dearly and have a ton of fun with. Everyone keeps saying, "Oh, we'll pray for that girl for you!" but I would like people to understand that we did not get pregnant in hopes of having any particular gender.

Yes, it would be super awesome to have a baby girl! I've always dreamed of putting her in tutus, bows, lace, glitter, and the most adorable clothes. I've fantasized about watching her dance in recitals, in Spring Shows, be in small-town beauty pageants, watch her perform at high school football games, watch her fall in love, have inside jokes with her girlfriends, graduate from college, be the most beautiful bride that ever walked an aisle, and be there for her as she delivers my grandkids. A bond between a mom and a daughter is incredibly special. I've always longed for that.

BUT... for the record, I am TOTALLY A-OKAY with my fourth boy. I don't have a single problem with it. I was MADE for boys. They love me unconditionally, they are more fun than I could even begin to describe, and they are super gross! I love being silly and gross with them.

Let's face it, I don't want my daughter laughing hysterically at her own fart. That's what boys do! And I love that about them.

I don't have to do their hair, they're not picky about their clothes or shoes, they don't steal my clothes or my hairbrush, or my chapstick (one day lipgloss and mascara).

Anywho - whatever God decides to bless us with is exactly what we want. He knows what we need. Maybe he knows this Mama likes being the center of attention and should be the Queen of the household. Maybe he thinks I need a taste of my own medicine and will make me share the spotlight. I guess we'll see!

We'll find out in January and we're so excited! Whatever gender it is, is what it is supposed to be!

Stay tuned....

Another Reason to be Thankful

We have more to be thankful for than we could've expected! All our blessings are from The Lord and we are so excited to share our news!

Delicious Turkey Burgers

I made some really good turkey burgers tonight, I'm not gonna lie!

They were SO good; even my 4 year old finished his. WHA?!?!

So here's what I did. I preheated my oven to 400 degrees. I started with two pounds of ground turkey meat. Then add any type of seasoning you normally put in burgers. I love McCormick Grill Mates Hamburger seasoning. So good. It's all right in there for you. Yum! Then I added a tub of feta crumbles and a defrosted box of frozen spinach. Mix it up well and then make round patties.

Tonight I did something different and put a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet. I put the burgers on the cooling rack and baked it for about 15-20 mins (I didn't set the timer - oops!). I flipped them when the top just started to barely get golden brown. I put them back in for another 10 minutes (or until golden brown on top). I toasted the buns and away we went!

Our spinach-turkey-feta burgers.
Look at all that grease on the pan. YAY! 

I topped them with a thin layer of mayo and some red onion and they were amazing! Seriously. Try them. You'll feel so good about yourself for indulging in a delicious burger without a ton of fat and a surprise veggie helping!

*Note: We just had chips on the side.

I'm Into Green Smoothies

Okay ladies and gents. I am seriously falling in love with green smoothies. It's an easy and delicious way to get UN-believably amazing health benefits, vitamins, and minerals! In this post, I will list MANY health benefits of the ingredients I used, but there are so many, there is no way I could list them all. Also, many of them present the same benefits. Please be sure to click on all the links so you can see even more!

Here we go! I am becoming obsessed with them!

One of my recent concoctions.

Last weekend, I made a really tasty smoothie. The green smoothie in the picture has tons of stuff that I just threw into the blender. This made enough for me, the hubs, and two of my kiddos (ages 13 and 10) to have one full glass. Here's what I added.

1 banana
2 small red delicious apples
approx. 1 c. raw baby spinach
approx. 2 oz. fresh blueberries
the juice of half a large lemon
2 individual size lowfat strawberry or strawberry/banana yogurt (frozen beforehand - but you can use refrigerated)
peanut butter
honey
ice
water

Blend it up and pour in a glass.

Today, I made one similar to the one above, but I added an additional banana, the juice of an orange, and some cran-grape juice. Here's the "recipe".


2 banana
2 small red delicious apples
approx. 1 c. raw baby spinach
approx. 2 oz. fresh blueberries
the juice of half a large lemon
the juice of half a large orange
about 1/2 c. cranberry-grape juice
2 individual size lowfat strawberry or strawberry/banana yogurt (frozen beforehand - but you can use refrigerated)
peanut butter
honey
ice
filtered water

Now, I got really curious about the benefits of such a green smoothie, and here is what I've found.

Spinach is really beneficial for everyone. In this article from Health Diaries, they list 11 Health Benefits of Spinach. The benefits are infinite, but the ones that peaked my interest are the promotion of healthy skin (let's face it, I'm getting older and a touch more vain), and the ultra-beneficial immunity protection. With it being flu season, we're all washing our hands like crazy - and carrying hand lotion in our purse to fight the dryness that comes with it - and now, we're eating a lot of spinach. [Don't tell the kids, but I'm even putting it in my turkey burgers tonight. And I once hid them in some chicken flautas. Gimme one up top! <high five>]

Some of the benefits of the other items in our smoothie:

blueberries - in the article Top 10 Health Benefits of Blueberries: brain health, urinary tract health, reducing belly fat [can I get a HELL! YES!], and the TOP antioxidant fruit on the planet. Plus, many more!
bananas - fights depression, promotes healthy bowels, high in iron source
apples - appetite and weight control, detoxify your liver, promote heart health source
lemon juice - blood purifier, detoxification, pH alkaline state to promote cancer fighting source
orange juice - reduces free radicals, whitens teeth, lots of Vitamin C and antioxidants source
yogurt - probiotics that help in digestive health, immune boosting source
peanut butter - regulate digestion, promote muscle tissue growth, energy boost source 1 source 2
honey - antioxidants that prevent cancer and heart disease, probiotics source


With all the amazing health benefits of everything I put in my smoothie, I feel great about having a HUGE glass. Get to it, people! Blend it up. There is nothing EASIER to boost your health.

Grocery Shopping Gone Awry

Grocery shopping. Blech. Why does it seem that I am the only one that can do the grocery shopping? Oh wait! It's because I actually get everything on the list, compare prices and quantities to get the best value and stick to a list. That's why.

My husband and I used to have an AWESOME agreement that we would go to the grocery store together. See, my husband will leave the store with only half of what's on our list. This is very annoying when he goes alone. I get EVERYTHING on the list [and then some] ------ which is why I need him there with me. He keeps me in check: he stops me from buying a lot of junk and from overbuying. In return, I keep him from walking out without laundry detergent and from spending $50 on nuts. :-|

Since we stopped going to the store together, I spend a LOT more at the store. And that stinks!

So, how am I trying to cut costs? Well, for one, I made a meal plan. That was so tedious and frustrating because I couldn't think of ANYTHING that I wanted to make this week. So, I went to my trusty resources, Pinterest, Crockin' Girls, and Allrecipes, to map out the next two weeks and found some really awesome meals that I can't wait to make! The downside: it seems I completed this task SO well, that I probably overbought. I NEVER buy 2 whole chickens, 6 lbs of turkey, and two 4 lb bags of frozen chicken breasts. But I did yesterday. Why? I needed it all for my meals. [Did I really? Idk. I will let you know what I have left over at the end of the grocery shopping cycle.]

Additionally, I looked at The Krazy Coupon Lady to see what sort of deals I could get at CVS and Target. I was really happy with the deals I scored at both stores. The ONLY thing that stinks about getting back into couponing is, until I get a little stash built up, I spend more than I normally do at the store. Boo! Why, you may ask? Well, I need all the stuff I normally get, plus I stock up on items when I find a good deal. For instance, I don't NEED three twin-packs of Glade Air Freshener refills right this second, but I got a GREAT deal, and I'll use them later. YAY, sort of.

Mint.com sent me an email this morning that said, "unusual spending on groceries". No kidding!

A Little Couponing Going On...

I'm trying to get back into couponing. I have to be honest, it's a little hard! I feel like I have a MILLION other things I could worry about instead. But, I also know, it will end up being very beneficial!

Last night, I had all my coupons cut from Sunday and decided to finally put them in my coupon binder. Yep, it took my 6 days to do it. Sad, huh? And I have to do it all over again tomorrow. I did get discouraged and started to sort through them and realize some of the items I would never buy, even if it was FREE, so I threw those out. That was hard, too. Throwing coupons away is like throwing money away! But I am making a diligent effort this time to only buy stuff I will actually use, need, and normally buy. 

Yesterday, I went to CVS and did a deal and I think I did rather well.

My CVS loot. Not the best picture. I'll get better!

I got 4 12-pk coke products, 8 cans of Pringles, 2 boxes of 25-ct Finish gel dish packs, 2 bags of Simple Pleasures, 2 toothbrushes, 2 Colgate toothpastes, and 4 candy bars. I spent $20.79 out of pocket and got $16 back in extrabucks. The Coke, Pringles, and Finish were part of the spend $30, get $10 back. Keep in mind, I had $21 extrabucks from last week to use toward my purchase. Thank GOODNESS!

Now, I will say, you need to pay SPECIAL attention when the clerk is checking you out. I did not notice until NOW that this clerk rang up one of my Finish as the wrong item, therefore I paid too much for those, and it didn't go toward my spend $30 get $10 and I had to buy the candy bars to reach my $30. Had he rung it up correctly, I would've saved nearly another $5! Raggghhhhhh.

Anywho, I am pretty proud of myself. It feels good to get back into it! 

Are you getting any good deals in the new year?

Angel Chicken... MY WAY

Yesterday I was looking for a crockpot meal because I just feel like there are not enough hours in the day and I have a gajillion things to do around this house. I didn't even really make a dent in finding places for all the stuff I still need to put away after moving. Raggghhhh. I do not suggest ever moving ever again.

Anywhoodle.

I found this recipe that had RAVE reviews on The Crockin' Girls called Angel Chicken.

Ingredients:

• 4 to 6 Chicken Breasts
• 1/4 Cup Butter
• 1/2 Package Dry Italian salad dressing mix
• 1 Can Cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 Cup Dry white wine
• 4 Ounces Cream cheese with onions and chives
• 1 Box penne pasta

Well, I had a few of those. But I didn't have Dry Italian salad dressing mix, white wine, or onion and chives cream cheese. So, I dug around in my pantry and fridge trying to decide on something else, when I had a revelation. 

I noticed I had some Philadelphia Cooking Creams - Santa Fe (that won't work) and Pesto. Would that work? Hmmm. Not if I don't dressing mix and wine. So then I read through the reviews and a lot of people said they substituted with either chicken broth or beer. Beer it is! I've almost always got that. :)

We still have this problem of the dressing mix, though. Ugh. What am I gonna do? Oh wait!!! I have a packet of Pesto sauce mix. The heavens have opened up and sent down the perfect combo!

Okay so here's what I did. Oh yeah, I took the advice of the other reviews and double the sauce. I threw in about 5 frozen chicken breasts, 1 stick of butter, 1 full package of Pesto sauce mix, 2/3 of one beer (yes, I drank 4 entire ounces at 1pm this afternoon), 1 can of cream of mushroom, and 1 can of cream of chicken. I set the crockpot on high for an hour and low for about 4 1/2 - 5 hours (My crockpot cooks uber fast). I cooked the pasta, shredded the chicken, and served it up with a side salad. 

I was very surprised how delicious it turned out, especially since I did SO many substitutions. I just happened to have the PERFECT substitutions, I guess!

Try it. It's SO good and easy!

Crockin' Girls Angel Chicken