Today we're doing a fun summer thing, kids are in their bathing suits and playing in the kiddie pool while I cooked Buttered Noodles with Peas.  Simple lunch for the kids and not too bad for them, fills them up! And I didn't have to use any meat, as I'm on a budget this was a good deal for me!  After lunch we cooked some Oatmeal Raisin cookies together (Which is an amazing feat in itself as my kitchen is the size of a studio kitchen even though we have a pretty good sized home!) and set up a fort under the dining table.  We have a table height dining table so it worked out wonderfully.  They put a blanket under the table and ate cookies and listened to kids music.  Its a good way to relax or get other things done around the house while they are happily eating cookies and having fun.  Of course I couldn't write this without the best cookie recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies I have found so far.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
1C. Softened butter                             2C. Oats or 1C. Oatbran and 1C. Oatmeal
1 1/2 C. Packed Brown Sugar             1/2 C. Sugar
1tsp. Cinnamon                                    2 Eggs
2 tsp. Baking Soda                               2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder                        2 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt                                          1 C. Raisins

Mix Oatbran (Optional), Oatmeal, Flour, Salt, Cinnamon, Baking Powder and Baking Soda, set aside.
Cream the butter and sugars in a bowl.  Add eggs and vanilla, mix well.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients until well blended. Add raisins, mix until evenly distributed.  (I recommend refrigerating for 30 minutes so they don't spread too much while baking) Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake @ 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes or until slightly golden on edges.  Let cool on pan about 5 minutes, transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

They are exceptionally good!! Enjoy!

Weight Loss

I am on a food hiatus apparently because me and my wonderful hubby are doing a new diet, 2 shakes of Body by Vi and a couple HEALTHY snacks (we've chosen fruit) and 1 meal for dinner.  I've also found that using myfitnesspal.com is helping me too.  Or at least day two is going well! Body by Vi seems expensive but we did some research and if you use the two shakes a day plan then its about the same or even cheaper than what you could get at GNC.  Plus it has the least amount of calories than any I've found.  He also bought me at walmart the Jenny McCarthy exercise game for the Wii.  Its great! I've been doing the exercises with my daughter who's 8, its a great motivator when she can keep going and she's so sweet she cheers me on. "You can do it mama!"  So My first day I started at 165lbs and my BMI is at an unhealthy level at 30.15.  NOT something I'm proud of.  I LOVE baking and cooking but I have decided that I can do that periodically AFTER I get to my goal weight.  Now its just how long will it take to get there!  It will be hard to avoid sweets on my birthday coming up at the end of this month but I am going to do this! I might actually cheat but it won't be bad to cheat once in a while, so that I don't cheat too often later.  HA! We will see....so I've added a pic of my before, now to wait it out for that after picture....I'm on pins and needles here!



6 weeks later!!! YEAH!! I lost 12 pounds already! If you want to lose some weight without exercising (Because I know I sure didn't have enough energy to start with) please go to mine and my hubby's website
JeremyStaceyBrown.bodybyvi.com  Its awesome! and its low calorie so you can add sooo much to it and still be below your calorie intake for the day! There is even a site that gives you recipes for the shakes...TONS of recipes.  I'm feeling good!!

Cleaning house

OK, so my wonderful hubby has been complaining that I can't keep the house clean like he would if he was a stay at home dad...keep in mind I work 30 hours a week, not exactly stay at home but whatever. Anywho... I have been looking up things on how to keep my house clean better and I found http://organizingmadefun.blogspot.com and on her blog she said that you can keep your home clean with 15 minutes of cleaning a day...soooo I'm going to try it.  I will keep you posted on how it is going, today is day 1.

Italian biscuits

Found a recipe on Pinterest.com that was amazing for the 7up biscuit.  Really that has to be the absolute best! Its 2 cups of biscuit mix, 1/2 cup of sour cream (I use plain yogurt cause my hubbs is lactose intollerant but he can have yogurt because the enzymes in yogurt eat the lactose) and 1/2 cup of 7 up and 4 tbsp. butter melted in a pan.
First you mix the biscuit mix and sour cream until you form little pea size balls and then you add the 7 up.  and mix until fully combined.  Knead 8 times with a little more biscuit mix and then cut with a floured knife into 8-12 biscuits, and place in pan over the melted butter.  Bake on 350 for 12 minutes or until the center of the biscuits are firm...please don't overcook as they don't taste as good.
So I had the BRILLIANT idea of making some of these for our woman's group for church one day and they were making spaghetti so I thought...ITALIAN.  So I doubled the recipe and added in the beginning with the dry mixture...
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
1 cup of grated italian cheeses
Baked it in a 13x9 pan for 15-20 minutes.  They were sooo good and everyone wanted seconds! (Picture and original recipe that I found is from Plainchicken.com)

New to blogging

ahh...New to blogging and this will be my first post.  Just wanting to say hi and to tell you that I will be posting about recipes I've tried and family blunders that I will be going through. Fun stuff!