Does Your Closet Need a Fall Cleaning or an Upgrade on a Budget?
We have been talking a lot about how to have a healthy mind and body. I think most of us know that clutter can be a real negative influence on the health of our mind and body. We often get distracted during these next few months. During the fun activities of the holiday season it becomes so easy to put many important aspects of life on hold (especially cleaning and organizing) until the busyness calms down (or should I say IF the busyness calms down). This year, don’t let that happen! Let’s be more prepared for the fun of the holidays by freeing ourselves from the stress of clutter. Or, maybe you were very successful with your Spring Cleaning this year and you have been waiting to upgrade your closet. Finding a great deal can be good for your health, too! There are fun ways to clean and organize your home and I am going to share one of those ways with you today!
ThredUP is the name of my recommendation for de-cluttering your closet and/or improving it on a budget.
“thredUP is the easiest way to save money on great Women’s and Kids’ clothing brands and sell clothes for cash. We’re like a consignment store, but simpler. On thredUP you can refresh your entire wardrobe online without ever leaving your house.”
Browse thousands of like-new clothing items, which we’ve hand-selected and certified for quality. You’ll find all your favorite brands discounted up to 90% off, year-round.
And, when you’re done with clothing, simply fill up a thredUP bag and put it on your doorstep. thredUP covers the shipping, and pays you for every item we can sell to other families.
Our goal is to make your life just a little bit easier.
- We eliminate the stress of deal hunting
Smoked Paprika Chickpea and Chard Soup
October has ushered in the fall season and even though the weather has not cooled down during the day, in our hometown, the evenings are brisk and perfect for a bowl of hearty soup. This vegetarian selection of chickpeas and chard combined with nutty farro makes a delicious soup. I served it to our family this weekend and it was a 10 out of 10. As we continue our Healthy Mind and Body challenge we encourage you to join us, click here for more information.
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped parsley
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary chopped fine
1 bay leaf
3 cups organic vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 ½ teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
1 can rinsed and drained chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 (14.5 ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cups chopped swiss chard
3 cups cooked farro (cook as directed on package)
½ cup green onions
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Directions
Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onions, carrots, celery, parsley, garlic and bay leaf. Cook for 8 minutes until vegetables are tender. Stir frequently. Stir in broth and water and spices, chickpeas and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Stir in swiss chard and farro and cook until chard wilts. Stir in green onions and top with cheese. Keep well in refrigerator for 5-6 days.
Serves 8
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Believe in Yourself
“You can’t have a health body long-term without a healthy mind. The two are connected at every level. If you don’t believe at the deepest level that you are a healthy person, you will sabotage yourself every time. If you are a person who loses weight only to gain it back, your beliefs do not match your visions. You believe something other than what you are trying to accomplish and your mind brings your body back to the unhealthy state again and again.”
A healthy mind and body is all about belief. To have lifelong health you must believe in yourself. If your current beliefs don’t serve you–GET RID OF THEM!
The Healthy Mind and Body program is a 60 program designed to help to be your best self by cultivating lifelong healthy habits by recognizing that you need to have a healthy body AND mind! You will learn that success in any area is based on aligning your goals, actions, and attitudes.
I am learning so much about how my attitudes affect my health. I can make all the goals I want, but without healthy attitudes and healthy actions, I will fail every time.
No matter what life we are called for we can do great things when we believe in ourselves. Napoleon Hill states, “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” We were not designed for a mediocre life. God designed us will big plans. It’s time to get out of our own way and start believing that we can achieve our goals and be all that God wants us to be!
Join us in our Fall Into Health Wellness Wisdom Campaign. Click here to learn more!
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Read MoreFocus
Thought patterns can become habitual. They can also be changed with intentional effort Responding in joy, reacting in negativity, answering in content, or retorting with frustration… they can all come to mind so easily with the snap of a finger. It often seems like you can’t control what thoughts come into your mind. You can, with lots of focus and effort. But you can always control what you do with those thoughts. The mind is a powerful thing. We need to train our minds, our thoughts, our ideas to be more focused on who we want to be, on our goals, and on something bigger than ourselves.
Focus is “The ability to keep your attention where you consciously want it to be. It’s the art of disciplining your imagination to achieve your desired outcomes.”
By changing our thought patterns it is ultimately changing our mindset and perspective. We all have some sort of self talk whether it is positive, negative, helpful, harmful, encouraging… etc. What story are you telling yourself? Are you your own worst enemy? Do you believe in yourself? Do you give others the benefit of the doubt? Are you focused on yourself, others, God? Take some time this week to think about your own self talk. What are your initial reactions? What do you think when you go throughout your day? Who do you want to be? All your thoughts should be channelling towards the person you want to be. If you want to be a grateful person, you will be grateful about the every day things in your life. If you want to be filled with joy, your initial reaction needs to be filled with joy. If you want to be a happy person and your first reactions are angry, there is going to be some …
Read MoreWhy Begin with My WHY?
Have you ever thought about WHY you do what you do? Most of us spend our time focused on our WHAT-tackling our “to-do” lists, taking care of the urgent needs in our daily lives and ultimately accomplishing some of our goals. The girls and I are currently participating in an online course called Healthy Mind and Body. (to find out more about this program click here). One of the guiding principles of the course focuses on developing our WHY. The difference between our WHAT and our WHY is very important to understand when developing a healthy mind and body? Our WHAT focuses on the tasks to be done, the end result of what we want to accomplish. Our WHAT involves logic, drive and behaviors that we use to obtain our goals. Our WHY, on the other hand, focuses on our vision, passions, beliefs and purpose. An example of the difference might look like this……My WHAT…..My daughters and I write a blog to provide “deep rooted wisdom for growing families”….My WHY….everyday is filled with amazing things that I am learning and I am passionate about sharing my experiences in our blog so I can help others. The difference is not in the results, but in the process. My WHAT is the task of writing the blog. When I approach my life from my WHAT, those things I want to accomplish and the tasks I need to do can become mundane and driven by obligation, responsibility, commitment. Those driving forces are not bad or wrong, they just lack the inspiration that comes from working out of my WHY. When I approach my life from my WHY, I am inspired to do the very thing I really want to do, deep down inside of me. I am driven by my greater purpose, …
Read MoreFall Into Health Wellness Campaign EXTENDED!
We are so excited about our Fall Into Health Wellness Challenge that we are extending the start date ONE MORE WEEK!! We have been previewing the Healthy Mind and Body program the last month and it is truly life changing personal development for you mind, body, and soul!
Find out more about the Fall Into Health Wellness Campaign by clicking here.
Join us this week as we share some of our favorite insights and lessons we’ve learning so far.
The Fall Into Health Wellness Campaign starts next week, Monday, October 12. We have a few spots left to join us in the Healthy Mind and Body portion for FREE!! These spots will go fast so grab yours by clicking on the button below to enter your contact info and goals so we can help you get started.
Join us in our Fall Into Health Wellness Wisdom Campaign. Click here to learn more!
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Read MoreEasy Egg Bake
Raise your hand if you like easy food. ME!!
Then this Easy Egg Bake is for you. Really you just grab a bunch of veggies, chop them up, toss in a greased pan, add meat if you want, cover with beaten eggs, bake. Voila! Delicious and easy breakfast lunch or dinner.
I make this almost every week for a nutritious quick lunch. Perfect for home or to eat out and about.
- Veggies - 1 diced zucchini, 1 diced sweet potato, 1-2 diced carrots, 1 cup chopped kale or spinach, ½ head of broccoli, diced.
- Meat - Turkey bacon or flavored chicken sausages chopped
- 8-12 eggs
- 1 cup Cheese (optional topping)
- 1 Avocado (optional topping)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a glass baking dish.
- Chop veggies.
- Spread veggies in the pan.
- Chop up meat.
- Beat eggs. I use 8 eggs for a 2 qt. baking dish. Add extra eggs if needed so the eggs are level with the veggies and meat.
- Pour eggs over veggies and meat.
- Bake 35-45 minutes or until egg is cooked throughout.
- Cool and top with cheese or avocado.
Join us in our Fall Into Health Wellness Wisdom Campaign. Click here to learn more!
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Read MoreCaribbean Creole Sauce for Any Meat
- 2 TBS coconut oil or olive oil (if you want a touch of coconut flavor, use that)
- ½ onion
- 3 stalks of celery
- ½ pepper
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 2 scallions
- 2 TBS oregano
- 1 TBS cayenne pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 TBS worchestire sauce
- 1 TBS apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup chicken stock or chicken broth
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1 can diced tomato
- 2 lbs of chicken
- 1 handful of parsley
- In a deep skillet over medium heat, heat one tablespoon of coconut oil or olive oil and saute the white onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic for about 4 minutes.
- Add in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, green onion, chicken stock, red wine vinegar, worchestire sauce and seasonings.
- Add cubed chicken and cover. Cook until tender and cooked through. If you have already cooked chicken, just add to the sauce and warm uncovered. It works great with cooked shredded meat also.
- Add parsley at the end
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion
- 3 stalks of celery
- 1/2 pepper
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 2 scallions
- 2 TBS oregano
- 1 TBS cayenne pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 TBS worschestire sauce
- 1 TBS apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup chicken stock or chicken broth
- 1 can tomato sauce
Italian Caprese Panini
Do you ever have a craving for a delicious Italian dinner but do not have the time to make homemade pizza and it is too hot to stand over a hot pot of pasta boiling on the stove. Try these amazing Italian caprese panini. We did not actually have a panini maker but we improvised with an old school waffle maker that had a double sided grill. (You can also use a pan on the stove top with another heavy pan on top and then flip the sandwich over halfway through baking.)The result is a crispy outside, cheesy gooey and delicious inside filled with mozzarella, roasted red peppers, red onion, garlic, basil, sliced tomato and spinach. It is best served hot right off the panini press dipped into a balsamic vinegar dressing.
Ingredients
4 large ciabata style rolls (crunchy outside and soft inside)
12 ¼ inch slices fresh mozzarella cheese
2-3 fresh garlic cloves smashed
3-4 slices red onion
1 roasted red pepper You can sauté in a pan or roast in the oven)
8 basil leaves chopped into small pieces
2 cups baby spinach leaves
2 tomatoes sliced (8-10 slices)
homemade balsamic vinegar dressing see recipe below
Cut Ciabata bread in half lengthwise. Open up and layer on bottom half-cheese, tomato slices, red onion, red pepper,spinach and basil. Spread the smashed garlic on the other side. Press two halves together and put into a panini press. Let sandwich heat until cheese is melted and top and bottom of the ciabata is crispy.
Homemade Balsamic Dressing
¼ cup olive oil
⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic smashed
½ teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons honey
Pour all ingredients into a salad dressing emulsifier and mix until well blended.
Crunchy Veggie Taco Slaw and Pineapple Mango Salsa
On a warm summer night when it is too hot to cook…fire up the grill outside and grill up some white fish and make grilled fish tacos. The perfect accompaniment to your homemade fish tacos are these recipes for Crunchy Veggie Taco Slaw and Pineapple and Mango Salsa.
Ingredients for Veggie Slaw
1 bag broccoli slaw from Trader Joes
1 cup leftover bbq corn or Trader Joes fire roasted corn (defrosted)
½ cup red onion chopped
1 yellow pepper chopped
1 cup spinach or kale chopped fine
½ cup cilantro chopped fine
10 roasted brussel sprouts chopped
Dressing
2 teaspoon cumin
½ cup balsamic vinegar
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1 clove garlic smashed
Mix all vegetables in a medium bowl. Stir all dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Toss crunchy veggies with dressing and chill until ready to serve. Place grilled white fish (we used cod) on a warmed corn taco and add ¼ cup crunchy veggie taco slaw. Add 2 tablespoons pineapple and mango salsa on top of slaw and add a dollop of guacamole.
Ingredients for Mango and Pineapple Salsa
½ cup fresh pineapple chopped into small pieces
½ cup fresh mango chopped into small pieces
1 medium tomato chopped into small pieces
¼ cup cilantro chopped fine
4 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice or lime juice
4 Tablespoon of your favorite salsa (we used Pace Picante medium)
Mix all together and chill until ready to serve.
Grill up some of your favorite white fish and wrap it up in a warm corn tortilla, with some crunchy veggie slaw and pineapple mango salsa and you will have a delicious dinner ready for a few close friends or a crowd.
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