July 2013 – Susie Strauss

July 26, 2013

Family Movie Night Starring Tinkerbell

Woo hoo! We made it through the week. I can’t believe it’s Friday! I’m looking forward to having a nice relaxing weekend at home with the family. I noticed that the new Tinkerbell movie is on television. I added it to our queue while I ate my lunch today. I think we’ll do a family movie night tonight when I get home.

I’ve been wanting to see this movie ever since I found out that it was coming out. I found out by stumbling across videos on YouTube one day and then got hooked. I’m a huge Tinkerbell fan. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’m a big kid at heart.

Anyway, family movie night tonight. I think it would be fun to order pizza and make banana splits. I’ll have to run by the grocery store really quick on my way home to get some ice cream and bananas but I think I can do it and still get home at a reasonable time.

What are your plans for the weekend? Do you have anything fun planned or are you just going to take it one day at a time and see what life brings your way? I’ll love to be inspired for plans next week. Share away.

July 21, 2013

Save Space with TV Wall Mounts

We have three big flat screen televisions in our home. One of them is in our family room with a big entertainment center. I’ve been thinking of taking the entertainment center out to give us some more floor space and getting one of the crimson mounts to mount it to the wall. The kids have a lots of toys int he family room and I’m thinking it might be nice if there is more room to walk around all of the toys without having to avoid the entertainment center too.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our giant entertainment center, I’m not getting rid of it. I’m just moving it to another room and getting another television. I was thinking of getting one of those really neat mounts that swivel and can come out from the wall to face different directions. My neighbors have one and they love it. They have it in their living room and use it to turn the television toward the kitchen and dining room when they want to watch television at the table. Some times I’ll allow this, sometimes I won’t. It would be nice to have that option though.

Come to think of it it would be nice to use to watch cooking programs while I’m in the kitchen. Hmm, I might be having my husband pick up more than one of these for our home.

July 15, 2013

Exercise and Workout Update

Well, it’s been a few days now since my husband and I started on our journey to exercise and work out three times a week. To be fair this week was short because we decided that we would only work out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings before work. This week we only had Wednesday and Friday.

It hasn’t been that bad really so far. I wasn’t thrilled about waking up an extra hour early to work out at first but I’ve realized that it will ultimately force me to try to get to bed at a decent hour. I suppose that this New Year’s resolution will ultimately be two in one because if I don’t get enough sleep I won’t be able to exercise well in the morning. I’m always saying I need to get more sleep or go to bed earlier. Well, this will help me get that goal accomplished as well.

So we have one week down only fifty one more to go. I wonder how I’ll feel the closer we get to the end of the year. I’m also wondering how long it will be before we slack off on accident or if we will be able to stay focused and on track. I really hope that by us doing this together we don’t’ lose our momentum and fall off the wagon. Just a few weeks in and I’m sure it will become our natural routine.

July 9, 2013

An Early Morning Start by Accident

I thought I would sleep in a little bit this morning, but my body thought otherwise. I still got up bright and early like it was a week day. And not just any ordinary weekday, one of the weekdays where I have to get up even earlier to work out with my husband. That’s right I got up at 5:30 am this morning.

I thought I could at least sleep until maybe 8:00 but nope. I suppose my internal clock is off by a day. Since I’m up early anyway I thought I would get some blogging done and maybe do a little research for Jill about her wedding.

I also thought I could make the family a nice hearty homemade breakfast. I think I’ll make some kind of starch, I can’t decide if I want to make pancakes, waffles, muffins, or coffee cake. In addition to the sweet starch I will add in some eggs of course. The kids love to eat cheesy scrambled eggs. I don’t want to over load everyone with more fat and calories than they need so I’ll try to round everything out with some fresh fruit, a glass of milk or orange juice, and some coffee for my husband and I. Now to get to it!

July 3, 2013

Mac & Cheese Makeover

Mac & Cheese is a favorite comfort food of many. I love to eat eat plain with just macaroni and cheese, but I also love to give it a little makeover and change things up a bit. Just a few additions and you’ll have a new dish to sink your teeth into.

Here are a couple of ways to give your mac & cheese a makeover:

Add some chicken. You can slice it, dice it, grill, or bake it. I like to mix in chunks of grilled chicken or serve it in slices along the top of the dish.
Add some broccoli. I usually steam the broccoli until it is just tender and toss it in with the mac & cheese at the last minute. I’ve even been known to blanch the broccoli in the same water the macaroni is cooking is in. I just scoop it out after a minute or soo and let the macaroni continue to cook. It saves time and an extra pan, and adds a little flavor to the pasta water.
Add some tuna. I think about 5oz. per cup of mac & cheese is a nice ratio. It gives a nice protein portion and really fills you up nicely. It kind of reminds me of a tuna melt sandwich and I love it.
You can really go wild and add some lobster. It’s nice to go fancy sometimes and add a tasty treat like this. Trust me, you’ll love it.
Add some pureed winter squash. You won’t even know it’s there and you’ll be getting loads of added nutrition. My kids and husband don’t know that I regularly sneak in butternut squash to our mac & cheese. It’s the perfect color and is nice and creamy. To make it easy on you try adding a few containers of baby food squash, it’s the same thing and all of the work is done for you.

I hope you’ll try out some of these ways to make over your mac & cheese. What’s your favorite way to eat macaroni?