Fresh & Healthy
Travel & Vacation: Character Breakfast at the Garden Grove (Orlando, FL)
Meeting Goofy at Breakfast!
We were able to go to the Saturday morning Character Breakfast at Garden Grove Cafe while we were in Orlando. It is located on the Swan and Dolphin Resort, but anyone can come and eat there if they want. They had great food and we got to meet a couple of the Disney Characters during our meal. The girls thought it was pretty neat too. If you do want to eat at a character to meal make sure you work that into your budget while in the planning stages because they are a little higher priced than some of the other options. Also, if you have a choice choose the breakfast over the dinner Character meal because it is a little less expensive. If you have older kids any kid 10 years and up is charged the adult prices (both for the meal as well as to get into the Disney parks).
The kids did amazing the entire week. We were going full throttle this entire week, they didn’t miss a beat, and had great attitudes. We were going from sun up to way past sun down every night too. They did crash as soon as the hit the pillows every night, but still popped up as soon as the first ray of sunlight hit our room!
Delicious food complete with a Mickey Mouse Waffle! The fresh fruit and fresh fruit smoothies were amazing!!!
Having fun even at breakfast!
Hanging out with Pluto!
Love spending time with my man!
What’s for Dinner: Our Weekly Menu Plan
Last week flew by as we recovered from our Florida trip, geared up for our State STEM Competition, and got back into a more normal routine. This is the last week of school before the kids get out for Spring Break. Looking forward to having a week to hang out with them. With that being said it will be a pretty busy week so I want to keep the menu easy so we can get what we need to accomplish done in a timely manner. Here is our menu plan for the upcoming week:
Our Weekly Menu Plan
- Monday (Beef or Pork Entree): Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garlic Bread
- Tuesday (Kid’s Night to Cook): Special Event
- Wednesday (Chicken or Vegetarian Entree): Mushroom & Spinach Chicken, Green Beans
- Thursday (Pasta or Seafood Entree): Broiled Tilapia, Steamed Vegetables
- Friday, Saturday, & Sunday: Leftovers, Family Preference, and Hosting
I have a general pattern I try to follow for my weekly Menu Plan (for example Monday we have a beef or seafood entree and so forth). It is my goal, at least in the beginning, to have at least the main dish and one side planned. I will put together the remaining side dishes (veggies / fruits) based on the food items that need to be used up first and compliment the main entree.
Setting a weekly menu plan helps me utilize my time better, thus freeing up extra time to spend with my family. On the days that I am working longer hours I can prep the meal in advance so it will be easier to pull together once I am home. As I go through the menu planning process I will try to share some of our favorite family recipes. If there is a specific recipe you would like please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate (some recipes are a toss together meal and I do not use any set measurements).
As a family of four our life can get busy. What’s for Dinner is our weekly menu planning series and one of the ways to help keep us organized, on schedule, and within budget. Our family typically eats 6 to 7 dinner meals at home a week. We do try to go out to eat at least once a month as a special treat. Breakfasts are eaten at home before work and school, lunches are eaten at work, school, or home, so dinner is our main meal together as a family. Dinner is our time to reconnect, share, and enjoy being together after a busy day. Our weekly menu plan covers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only because the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) is our time to spend with family and friends. The weekends tend to be more spontaneous and my husband (who is the better cook) likes pitching in therefore we keep the menu open for variety. We use up the leftovers throughout the week for our lunches and on the nights that we are busy or can’t cook.
Photo by Liz
Intentional Living: Weekly Goals
Last week were were somewhat into the normal routine. This past weekend we went with the kids to Columbia, SC for their State STEM Lego Robotics Competition. We spent Friday night at a hotel near the meet because we had to be up early and ready on Saturday morning for the competition. The kids had a blast and did well. There was a lot of competition and with this only being their 2nd year doing STEM Club it was a real honor to be at the event. Here are my goals for this week:
Last week’s goals
Family Goals
- Finish reading Rascal by Sterling North to the kids – it was a busy week but made a little more progress through the book
Plan one special activity with the familyPlay a Game with the KidsPrepare for Upcoming Spring EventsSpend time Monday – Friday helping the kids with Homework– some extra homework with them being gone last weekAttend After School ActivitiesLunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night beforePrep for upcoming Family Adventure– went to the girls STEM State Comprtition this past weekend and spent the night before in a hotelGet the kids caught back up with Homework from missing school last week while in FloridaPrep for upcoming State STEM CompetitionPrep for upcoming Spring BreakTake kids to Eye Dr and Dentist for regular Cleaning– eyes looking good and no one has any cavities just more lose teeth, the last of their baby teeth are starting to fall out…look out tooth fairy
Personal Goals
Drink 8 glasses of water each dayContinue my YouVersion plan(s)Go to my Doctor Appointments Scheduled this week
Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day – I did it twice this week because we had a couple items that needed washed before the STEM competition on Saturday.
Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the weekUse up food items in our pantry and freezerClean House (Focus – Extra Laundry Done from Traveling)Organize Chaos (Focus – Unpack All Suitcases and Put Items Away from Florida Trip)Yard / Garage Cleanup (Focus – Clean Out the Van from the Florida Trip)Pet Care (Focus – Pick Up Hay for the Goats)
Business Goals
Work on ideas for upcoming blog postsRespond to Inquiry – Business Relation EmailsKeep up with the day to day items that need my attentionWork completed for clients
Ministry Goals
Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
- Payoff the Car – working on it
- Payoff Medical Bills – working on it
- Payoff Other Outstanding Debt – (replacement microwave, refrigerator, hot water heater, bed, and other debt) – working on it
Pay Bills & File Paperwork- Go grocery shopping one time to one store this week and stay within budget – went about $15 over budget this week
My goals for the upcoming week
Family Goals
- Finish reading Rascal by Sterling North to the kids
- Plan one special activity with the family
- Play a Game with the Kids
- Prepare for Upcoming Spring Events
- Spend time Monday – Thursday helping the kids with Homework
- Attend After School Activities
- Lunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night before
- Prep for upcoming Family Adventure
- Figure out the kids Science Fair Projects
- STEM Club Event Presentations for Family Night at School
- Prep for upcoming Spring Break
Personal Goals
- Drink 8 glasses of water each day
- Continue my YouVersion plan(s)
- Go to my Doctor Appointments Scheduled this week
Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
- Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week
- Clean House (Focus – Unpack Suitcase and Items Away from State STEM Robotics Trip this weekend)
- Organize Chaos (Focus – All pictures downloaded & organized from FL and STEM trips)
- Yard / Garage Cleanup (Focus – Sweep out my side of Garage)
- Pet Care (Focus – Pick Up Mineral Bucket for the Goats)
Business Goals
- Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
- Respond to Inquiry – Business Relation Emails
- Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
- Work completed for clients
Ministry Goals
- Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
- Payoff the Car
- Payoff Medical Bills
- Payoff Other Outstanding Debt – (replacement microwave, refrigerator, hot water heater, bed, and other debt)
- Pay Bills & File Paperwork
- Go grocery shopping one time to one store this week and stay within budget
I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true. When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals. Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick). Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.
Why Share My Goals?
- To keep me accountable
- To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
- To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
- Create healthy habits in my life
- To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn
How did you do this week on your goals? Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.
The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results.
Recipes: Open Faced Egg Sandwiches
Breakfast is ready!
I am so grateful for a husband who cooks! He is creative and makes the most amazing recipes. Before marrying him I can probably count the number of times that I ate and kept down eggs. Somehow he has managed to slowly convert me into actually enjoying eggs for breakfast. I still cannot tolerate a fried egg, but the ones he makes (with a good helping of cheese) always are a hit even with me.
The other day he made these Open Faced Egg Sandwiches for breakfast! They were delicious! He started out using the 6 pieces of the homemade Stone Ground Wheat Bread we had leftover from a dinner earlier that week. Then toasted the bread, added a layer of tomato, eggs, spinach, and cheese! His Open Faced Egg Sandwiches contained a fried egg while mine were scrambled. The cheese topping was provolone for the fried egg and american for the scrambled eggs.
Open Faced Egg Sandwich Recipe:
- Sliced Bread (we used homemade Stone Ground Wheat Bread)
- Eggs (fried or scrambled)
- Sliced Tomatoes
- Fresh Leafy Spinach
- Cheese (Provolone or American)
Toast and butter your bread. Add the sliced tomato on top of the bread followed by the cooked egg, spinach, and cheese. Continue to cook until the cheese is melted.
Homemade Stone Ground Wheat Bread, Tomatoes, Eggs, Spinach and Provolone Cheese are the perfect breakfast combination!
Jake and my daughter love their juicy centers on their fried eggs.
I prefer scrambled with American cheese!
Tasty and delicious!
A special breakfast treat! Thankful for an amazing husband who enjoys cooking!
Birthday Celebration
Happy Birthday breakfast
The girls got two of their birthday wishes on their birthday – one was that they would have snow on their birthday and the second was that they would not have to go to school because of a snow day. They got both wishes and were very excited. It’s not every day you get out of school on a Wednesday for snow in South Carolina. Thankful for these two girls and look forward to many more amazing memories this year with them. They each got to pick out what they wanted to eat for their birthday breakfast. For their special birthday dinner they wanted a Seafood Meal at home.
Karlie had eggs with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese in them.
Brina had a slice of cinnamon swirl breakfast cake.
My sister-in-law Becky shared a chocolate cake recipe with me that was both egg and dairy free so I decided to try it for their birthday. It turned out really well. They loved it. You couldn’t even tell that it was egg and dairy free. The flavor reminded me of my Grandma Doris Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake she used to make from scratch.
The girls wrote out a list of inside and outside activities they wanted to do on their birthday since they were home from school due to the snow. Even though they didn’t get to do all the items on the list I would say they did the majority of them. We packed a lot of fun activities into the day.
For their family birthday dinner they requested a seafood meal and specifically asked for King Crab. They love seafood and the King Crab was a hit and they are getting better at digging out the meat without assistance.
Jake and I picked up Mai-Mahi steak burgers to try as well for their seafood birthday meal. The Mai-Mahi steak with the fresh bakery bun, lettuce, and tomatoes were a tasty hit too! Thankful for our girls and that we can celebrate another birthday with them!
Soldiers and Soft Boiled Eggs
The soldiers are being dunked into the soft boiled egg!
One of my daughters has a new favorite breakfast treat – Soldiers and Soft Boiled Eggs! My husband was the one who introduced her to this new breakfast dish and it was a hit! Our family tries to have a sit down Saturday morning breakfast or brunch. We try to have at least one meal a day where we all sit down and eat together as a family. During the week that meal is in the evenings for dinner, but on Saturday we try to do it in the morning since many Saturday afternoons and evenings are taken up with other activities.
My husband is an amazing cook and will often introduce the kids to new recipes or come up with his on completely new recipe. Which always turns out delicious! I don’t think he has ever made anything that didn’t taste yummy! Myself on the other hand….well….let’s just say there have been a few dishes or recipes I have made that we can laugh about now as a family, ha!
The best part about Soldiers and Soft Boiled Eggs is that they are pretty easy to make. The “soldiers” are just bread that is toasted, buttered, and cut into strips. The soldiers are perfect for dunking into the delicious thick and runny egg yolk!
A soft boiled egg is a perfect combination between poached and hard boiled egg. To make soft boiled eggs you bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Gently add your eggs to the boiling water and cover the top of the pan. Reduce the heat to low and let them cook for 5 minutes. (While your eggs are boiling make your soldiers.) Remove the eggs from the boiling water and rinse the eggs with cold water.
Once your soft boiled egg is done cut off the top and serve immediately with your toast soldiers! After you are done dunking all your soldiers and your egg yolk is gone you can peel and eat the rest of your egg.
My daughter loves this breakfast. I think dunking the soldiers in the egg yolks has a certain appeal, but she enjoys the taste too. Always love it when we come up with fun and healthy recipes!
Dunking her soldiers into the soft boiled egg yolk.
Typically we do one piece of toast per two eggs, but it really depends on how much you want to dunk or the amount of yolk you want on each soldier.
What’s for Breakfast: Our Weekly Menu Plan
Here is what our breakfast menu looks like this week (the items in parenthesis are examples of the extra items we will add and change from week to week):
- Monday – English Muffins (Egg)
- Tuesday – Toast (Cottage Cheese)
- Wednesday – Cereal (Spinach & Strawberry Smoothie)
- Thursday – Pancakes, Poptarts, or Oatmeal (Sausage)
- Friday – Bagel (Yogurt)
- Saturday – Family Brunch (a lot of times we make Saturday breakfast together and it is whatever sounds good that morning or a new dish we want to try out. It is not always planned in advance and could be an egg or breakfast casserole, omelets, hashbrowns, waffles, pancakes, etc… this is our big family meal of the day since Saturdays are often spent with extended family, friends, or doing other afternoon and evening activities) Since we make more complicated breakfasts on Saturdays it is usually between 8 to 10 before we sit down to eat therefore they have become our Family Brunch.
- Sunday – Make Your Own Breakfast (everyone makes their own breakfast before church which is usually something easy like cereal, toast, poptarts, oatmeal, smoothie, etc….)
We are pretty consistent with our week day breakfast menu. For each day of the work and school week Monday to Friday we have the same main menu item from week to week the only thing that changes is the “extra item” we add each day such as an egg, sausage, fresh fruit, cottage cheese, bacon, smoothies, or other items that we have in the kitchen. During the school week the girls always have their main breakfast, at least one side (usually fruit, sausage, egg, etc…), vitamins, milk (one has non-dairy milk due to allergies), and small glass of juice. When I am ambitious, awake, and my creative juices are flowing I will add a little extra silliness to make breakfast more enjoyable for the kids.
We first started doing a different main breakfast item everyday a few years ago because I have one child who if she eats the same thing too many times in a row she stops eating. Adding a little variety from day to day was enough to keep her motivated to eat breakfast. It wasn’t until several months later when the girls pointed it out that I realized that we do the same main item on the same day every week. “Mom, Tuesday is Toast Day…..” So now it has become our rotating breakfast menu which helps keep us on track because we know exactly what we need to prepare for the next breakfast. Plus the girls are sometimes still waking up when they come to breakfast and the morning menu helps them figure out the day of the week as well as prepares them for the upcoming activities they have that day.
There are times I will mix it up (just for fun) or Jake will get up first and make breakfast! The girls don’t hesitate to let him know if he makes a main food item on the wrong day….ha! Our breakfasts are not fancy, but it gets us up and started for the day. What do you make for your family breakfasts?
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Kids “Make Your Own” Fruit Kabobs
Kids make your own fruit kabob bowl! Everything for the kabob is edible!
The other day one of my daughters had to bring a snack to an event. She wanted to bring fruit kabobs. The traditional fruit kabobs would need to be put together in advance plus they use wooden sticks.
My husband came up with an amazing idea! He put dry spaghetti noodles in a ziplock bag inside the bowl of mixed grapes. The kids loved making and eating their own fruit kabobs! They can even eat the spaghetti sticks if they want too! Super easy, yet fun for the kids!
Bag of dry spaghetti noodles for the kids!
Bowl of three different types of grapes for the kabobs!
Recipes: Pineapple Coconut Chicken
We tried a new recipe a couple weeks ago, Pineapple Coconut Chicken. When Jake and I were out on a date we stopped by a grocery store on our way home and picked up a bottle of Sharwood’s Pineapple & Coconut Milk that we used in this recipe. It was the first time we had the Sharwood’s Pineapple & Coconut Milk and it was delicious in our recipe! I used the sauce, added a little bit of chicken, and topped it with some cashews and fresh pineapple. The Pineapple Coconut Chicken was served over rice and with a side of Naan.
Pineapple Coconut Chicken Recipe:
- 1 jar Sharwood’s Pineapple & Coconut Milk
- 1 pound Chicken Breasts, cut into cubes
- 1 cup Cashews
- 1 cup Fresh Pineapple, cubed
- Steamed Rice (optional)
- Naan (optional side)
Cube the chicken and cook it until fully cook. Add the jar of Sharwood’s Pineapple and Coconut Milk and cook for 15 minutes. Place over steamed rice. Sprinkle on top with cashews and fresh pineapple. Serve next to warm Naan.
You can find the Sharwood’s Pineapple & Coconut Milk at Amazon or one of your local stores.
