Turkey and Veggie Roll Ups

When I am on a health kick, I tend to eat lots of beans, turkey and veggies. Here is one of my favorite health kick recipes.

• Easy crock pot pinto beans- Mix your rinsed beans with bell peppers, red peppers, onions, and chicken stock and cook on high for six hours. Season your beans with Pinto Bean Seasoning. I love Fiesta--probably because San Antonio is right next door to us. 

• You pick your bread of choice. I go for the high fiber w flax seed bread. 
• Cook your turkey
• Season your meat. I love Fiesta Taco Seasoning. 

• As your turkey cooks, grate your cheese, cut your onions and tomatoes.
• Saute your onions and spinach leaves.

• Add the turkey, tomatoes, sauteed spinach leaves, onions, pinto beans and grated cheese to your wrap--so yum!
• The next day pile the rest of the ingredients together and ENJOY! 

When you are on a health kick, you can't go wrong with HIGH fiber bread, especially if it includes FLAX SEED, vegetables of all types, turkey... and yes.. BEANS!!!!Turkey and Veggie Roll Ups are the best and healthiest food you could try. 

Written by: Aimee Fauci

Flash Back Friday 1/31/14

When the older kids were younger, we would spend weekends walking the mall and going to lunch. At one point in time a new sporting goods store, Galyans, popped up. It was an exciting store with tents, camping equipment, golf stuff, anything and everything else sports related and a two story ROCK CLIMBING WALL that was free of charge!

Since it was free, the kids made a few attempts; some attempts were quite interesting (and a bit comical).

Sadly, the boys discovered that they had a fear of heights. They were brave enough to harness themselves and were able to climb up around 3ft off the ground before they gave up. Their older sister ventured her way all the way to the top and rang the bell that sounded off when you reached the top. It was hard for us not to laugh at the boys, especially since there were much younger kids doing it. SN- We all laugh at each other, that's how we made our skin so thick ;-) 

I will say that the boys did eventually get over their fear of everything and ventured on to joining the Navy. 

Written by: Aimee Fauci

My Fabulous Oatmeal Review

During this health kick that I am on, I have been eating the best almond butter, jelly and banana sandwiches for breakfast. After my tenth day of having one I decided to try something different for breakfast, so I opened up my pantry and took a look. I moved around the endless bags of chips, the HEB chocolate chip cookies and the multi grain crackers and found oatmeal cups. Actually, I found three different brands of oatmeal cups, they must have gotten lost during my non healthy health kick. I decided that this would be the week that I change my breakfast diet to oatmeal and decide which brand out of the three was the best. Here we go!

Kellogg's Special K Nourish Oatmeal- This oatmeal jumped into my cart after I read the flavor- Maple Brown Sugar Crunch. I was really excited to eat it, especially with the nuts that you get to mix in. After I let the hot water do its thing, I reopened the lid, I stirred in the nuts and the wonderful  aroma mad my nose and my brain so happy. I was excited! 

Sadly, Special K Maple Brown Sugar Crunch was not as good as I expected. To me, the flavor was good, but the texture was not the best. I was happy for the mix in nuts because they helped with adding a crunch. I love foods with a crunch. I went ahead and ate the entire bowl, because it tasted okay and it did have 5 grams of fiber, which is a plus. 

Kathleen's Quick Oats- This oatmeal landed in my pantry as a result from an HEB Meal Deal, so it was basically free. Once again, I chose an oatmeal that was Brown Sugar flavor. I've never heard of this brand of oatmeal so I had no idea of what to expect. 

After the water soaked into the oats, I lifted the lid and was happy with the aroma, but not so much the texture. It had the texture of baby food, but with 4 grams of fiber, I went ahead and gave it a try. After my first bite, I decided to try and give the rest of the oatmeal to one of the daycare babies that I take care of. He was hesitant at first, but took two bites and then said 'All done!'. Just like myself, he was not a fan, so the rest ended up in the trash. 

Quaker Real Medley's Oatmeal- At one time I had an oatmeal addiction, so I would stock up on this brand and this flavor. After trying two different brands of ready made oatmeal, I made a decision that Quaker Real Medleys is the only oatmeal for me! This oatmeal is so good. It has apples, cranberries, and walnuts. Like I said before, crunch is good. This oatmeal tastes fresh and it has 5 grams of fiber. SN- It does have a few extra grams of sugar (22 to be exact) and 290 calories but the 6 grams of protein and the 5 grams of fiber make it okay. 

Let me know if you've had any of these and what you thought. 

Written by: Aimee Fauci 

She Will Take the Lady Diana Hair Cut

These are the words I heard from my mother from the age of 6 to around 9 years old. When I was 5 years old I had long beautiful hair; I was so cute.

I suppose my hair got too long and my mom got too busy with brushing out my knots that she made the decision that tending to my hair daily was not something she wanted to do anymore. From the moment her decision was made the instructions for the hair cutting lady was 'Give her the Lady Diana cut.'; aka a boy haircut.
.

Obviously by looking at this picture my hair did not and never did look like Lady Di's hair. It looked like a sloppy mess. For a while I did not mind the style of cut because I was a kid, I didn't know any better, but then random people started mistaking me for a boy! You may look at the above picture and think, 'She doesn't look like a boy', but take a look at the picture below.

Yep, that's me. I was born into a family of two sisters, but was mistaken as their brother many times. I remember selling candy with my sisters for school and the old man at the door said, 'Who's your little brother?'. One of my favorite memories was when we went roller skating and it was time for ALL GIRLS SKATE. After getting on the rink to skate, one of the employees stopped me and said, 'Hey it's all girl skate.', but 'I AM A GIRL!' I told him and went on and skated. 

Finally, in 5th grade I was allowed to choose my hair style. 

I can giggle at this now and make fun of myself and laugh, but when I look back at my childhood, when it comes to hair, I know the importance of asking my girls what hairstyle they want. What hairstyle makes them comfortable and makes them happy. From my childhood I learned that being forced to have a certain hairstyle really sucked, especially when it causes random people to think you are a boy. 

Do you have any stories from your childhood that makes you look at how you style your kids today?

Written by: Aimee Fauci

My New Breakfast Addiction

For 3 weeks I have been on a health kick to try and lose my flabbidy flab. Since that time I feel like I am obsessed with food and get really excited about meal time; I suppose this is because I have made myself stop snacking throughout the entire day.

While I am on this health kick, forgive me for posting and talking about my food; hopefully my obsession will die down soon, but in the meantime....

Introducing my new breakfast addiction:

Toasted 'Healthy' Flat Bread

Lather some AWESOME Almond Butter and Grape Jelly onto the pieces of bread

Smoosh a Banana and glop it onto a piece of the bread

Toasted Peanut Butter & Jelly Banana Sandwich

Grab a napkin because it is drippy. I have been known to lick my plate clean. What can I say, I'm hungry.

Do you have a breakfast addiction?

Written by: Aimee Fauci

I Bet You Can't Top My Biggest Beauty Flaws

As humans most of us try our best to look young and glam; some more than others. So much money is spent on making yourself look beautiful. Some people go and get professional beauty makeovers, while others do it at home.

I am the type of person that hates spending a lot of money and time at a beauty salon or spa to get re beautified, so I opt to buy the beauty product at the grocery store and do it myself at home, which has sometimes backfired on me. Read some of my biggest beauty flaws and let me know if you can relate or if you can make mine seem not so bad.

• Tanning Lotion- As in my previous post 'Skin Color Envy' I mentioned my flaw with using tanning lotion and how I did not rub the lotion on my legs evenly therefore causing it to streak. Since that time, when I choose to use tanning lotion I ask my husband, which he does not complain, for a little assistance. 
• Hair Remover- With my fair skin, my girly 'stache' tends to be the first thing I noticed when I  look in the mirror. With that said, I decided to use hair remover on my upper lip. I've used it before when I was younger and it worked perfectly. I followed the instructions, but afterwards there was still some 'stache', so instead of trying to tweeze I decided to reapply. That was a huge mistake. The second round removed the stache completely but left with me a two tiny burn scars that now look like pimples. 
• Hair Dye- I was blessed with premature gray, so I have been coloring my hair for years. I normally choose a brown or an auburn color. One day I decided to choose a brownish blonde. I thought that I would keep most of my brown but that it would give me some type of highlights. Nope, another huge beauty flaw, when I removed the towel from my hair it was an orangish yellow. Not cute!
• Shaving- When I was growing up, my sister had a better razor than I did so I decided to use hers without permission. Her razor made my legs smooth as silk, but two hours later they burned like fire. Later in life, I was taught that you don't share razors. 

These are just a few of the beauty flaws that I have made, some worse than others. Sadly, I did not think to take a picture of my hair or my burned stache lip but I was in panic mode at the time. 

Can you relate to any of these flaws or do you have any of your own that can top these?

Written by: Aimee Fauci

My Weekend Treat .. Panera Bread

For the past two weeks I have been eating like an AWESOME PERSON in hopes of losing some of my belly jelly. I've avoided going out to eat due to the option temptations that a beautifully colored menu provides. Since I've rocked for two weeks I decided it was time for me to test my will power and to give myself a little treat.

My eating establishment of choice was Panera Bread. I love the freshness, quality, healthiness, and food options. Normally when I eat at Panera Bread I choose to eat the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad but on this day, I chose something different.

Chicken Sorrentina Pasta w a cup of Tomato Soup- Just a few words to describe this dish.. oh so yummy! The fresh spinach leaves mixed with the fresh turkey and pasta and then each bite is dipped into the amazing tomato soup. SN- Anytime I order or make tomato soup, I use it as a dipper. 

Fuji Apple Chicken Salad - This is what I normally order but my husband ordered it instead. I think besides the freshness of it all, my favorite part are the walnuts! 

My baby girl is too little to eat a kid's meal, so I asked the cashier if they could charge me for a bowl of tomatoes and turkey. They did and it was only a $1. My child ate some of the bowl and then decided it was more important to play on the floor while stealing pieces of her daddy's bread. 

I can't wait to go back to Panera Bread and try a new dish. I should probably study the menu so I know what to get before my visit.. I would hate to hold the line up like I normally do and frustrate my  husband with my indecisiveness.

What are your favorite places to treat yourself to after trying to lose your belly jelly?

Written by: Aimee Fauci