FFFF #261 - Texas Weather, Favorites, and New Meal Plan

Happy Friday, friends! Well, the weather this week went from this.....

To this.....

Was I wearing old U of A sweatpants over my leggings? Yes, it was so cold. It says 15 degrees, but it feels like -1F. So ya....

Workout Fit After Stripping Haha

KJ keeps saying, "We're desert rats; we aren't meant for this." I think I said that like once, and now it's his favorite thing to say. Boo boo makes a face when we go in the cold that is nothing but pure disgust. The weather in Texas, at least in DFW, is erratic at best. It could be the 60s in the morning, and by the time I pick up the boys, it's in the 20s. In Arizona, if it was cold in the morning, we would wear jackets for the day; if not, then it wasn't gonna get much colder than whatever it was in the morning. Not Texas! Morning weather does not give you a gauge for the day, a mistake I've made a few times with the boys, which resulted in emails getting sent out from the school reminding parents to "send a jacket no matter what." It's been an adjustment, to say the least!

The boys also got haircuts! I took baby girl with me, thinking she would play in the playroom, but instead, she pulled every toy they had for sale off their shelf.

New Free Meal Plan

Before we do the Friday's Favorite thing, don't forget a new meal plan is now live in the Library of Resources! (If you are an HH subscriber and have trouble accessing it, please watch this video.)

What You May Have Missed This Week:

Around Social World This Week:

Favorites

A new Small Diaper Bag

It's pretty small, but I've been loving this diaper bag I ordered!

Pad Thai - Costco

Mr. Hungry and the baby girl loved this Pad Thai from Costco! I added broccoli for extra veggies, and it was perfect as an easy meal! I prefer spicy Thai food, but Mr. Hungry and Baby Girl really did love it!

On the night they ate the pad thai, I ate leftover Turkey Tacos and lettuce cups - there was only enough left for me! Here's how I make my taco meat.

And the kid's plates were random kabash of what we were eating, plus quesadillas. Of course, they ate the oranges and the quesadillas, but even if they don't eat everything on their plate, I've always felt that tolerance for food they don't want on their plate is so important. They aren't forced to eat it or even try it. (I did force KJ to try his food when he was little, and it backfired; he decided he didn't like it before he even tried it. It was ineffective.) But they are required to tolerate it. And they are not allowed to call food disgusting, ever. That will result in time out, loss of toys, etc. We explain that this is because some kids don't have enough to eat and would love to eat whatever they are calling disgusting. They are allowed to say they don't care for something, but only after they tried it. Otherwise, they must stay quiet, haha

For each kid, this was initially a battle I chose to fight, and it was a hard one. And now that I've seen it pay off in leaps and bounds, I'm so glad I did it. And she will absolutely do it with baby girl, but luckily, she hasn't hit the picky phase yet. She's more of a scavenger. She eats what's given to her, then says she's all done, gets unstrapped from the high chair, and then climbs on the bench part of our table and starts scavenging for food, haha. Anyway, the boys don't complain about food they aren't used to at restaurants (not that we eat out a lot with kids because that's just not enjoyable to me, haha) or on holidays.

Another Costco staple in our house is these burritos. I don't know if I ever shared them, but I definitely added them to my Healthy Costco Shopping List!

I usually pair the burrito with a coffee with collagen!

I replenished some of the kid's snacks and our more natural detergent. After the kids had a stomach bug, I had gotten some conventional laundry soap in here, Armor Hammer brand. I'm not messing around with the vomit smell, and I was kind of excited I'd missed the "smell" of clean laundry after switching to fragrance-free or essential oil-based laundry soap. But then, something kind of crazy happened, the smell was almost overpowering for me. I guess since I'm not used to it anymore, it felt like a lot, so I went back to old trusty!

I put together these two lists so I had somewhere permanent to keep the things I ordered! Costco stopped selling Pirates Booty and the Bear rolls, so I'm ordering those now! I used to get the Made Good granola balls at Costco, but those are a variety pack, and they only want the chocolate chip, haha, so now those are an Amazon thing, too!

Kids Healthy Snack List

Natural Cleaning Products List

I've been using everything on this list in my home for at least two years. I've gone through a lot of duds to find things I like, and I'm always trying new stuff! Like recently, I tried the Altitude brand laundry soap, and while I liked it, I would never buy it again because when you use the cap to measure the soap and put it back, it drips all over. That's a no. I don't use everything natural, but I'm striving towards the most possible.

Kids Lunches

I don't know if I should keep sharing these. But, I'm hoping you see how simple and repetitive a Dietitian feeds her kid will take some stress off of you feeling like you need to create lunch box sushi!

KK had the same thing both days - PB and J Sandwich, Freeze Dried Strawberries (from Costco), Jerky stick (cut lengthways since I can't monitor him at school, reduces choking hazard), Pirates Booty.

KJ's lunch didn't go so great, except for Thursday when he ate lunch at school. He didn't eat the turkey or the cheese sticks all week, which is frustrating because he eats those at home! Also, Annie's cheddar squares and organic raisins (from Costco), at least he ate those!

Lunchbox Supplies

Random Meals

I made this high protein alfredo bake by combining 6 ounces (dry protein pasta then cooked), 3 cups of steamed broccoli, 20 ounces of air-fried chicken tenders, and 16 ounces of Rao's Alfredo sauce. Then, top with ¾ cup mozzarella cheese and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. I'm going to share the full recipe as an actual blog post because it was so good, so simple, and came out to around 450 calories. Get this: 43 grams of protein!

We made two Frontier Soups this week - a French onion and a tortilla soup. I have to say, I wouldn't buy either of them again. French Onion was okay but was packed with lentils, which was weird. I don't really like French Onion, so I made it for Mr. Hungry, who had one bowl and then said to trash the rest. Honestly, you don't really need a packet to make French onion soup. It should just be onions and broth, essentially, haha, And bread and cheese, of course.

The tortilla soup was much better but has a really strong cumin taste. I prefer my tortilla soup.

Fitness

First of all, I have to share this here that I shared on stories! Moms of little kids (6 and under), you are more active than you think! When calculating your calories, you have to account for that! Really, my daily movement (getting around 6-10K) steps a day puts me moderately active without even working out! Why? Oh, because I get 3K steps a day before 9 AM without working out, just trying to get KJ ready for school (goes with Mr. Hungry) and take KK to school.

I have been back at more regular workouts - although I am still avoiding most split-leg or single-leg exercises for now, except for step-ups. I'm also avoiding a lot of plank "workouts," like mountain climbers and anything with rotation. Now that I'm feeling better, it's been easier to pinpoint what causes the issue and fix it. It's still a low back issue referring to the left SI joint, so that's annoying. But, I've been happy to be able to mostly workout normally.

I'm basically doing a bro split right now, and I do the same workout for four weeks in a row before changing. I'm doing an 8-10 minute cardio warm-up, but otherwise, I'm not doing a lot of hit or cardio right now. I've done a lot of that in my life, and will eventually get back to it. Right now, I'm interested in building muscle, and while it feels kind of weird not to run that much since it's been such a big part of my life, it also is a bit freeing. And again, I easily get 8-10K steps a day so movement isn't an issue right now. haha

Last week looked like this:

Saturday - ab day - core stability
Sunday - OFF
Monday - leg day - hamstrings and glutes - deadlifts, lots of glute med work, hip thrusts
Tuesday - back and triceps
Wednesday - rest/OFF, walk
Thursday - leg day - back squats, pulse squats, glute med work, step-ups
Friday - chiropractor - upper body - shoulders and biceps