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Weekly Meal Plan

February 24, 2015February 24, 2015 Taryn and Tavia1 Comment

I hope all of you had a great weekend! We sure did. Max and I attended the wrong baby shower…yes the wrong one. I checked the address, the time, and forgot to double check the date. We actually made it on time (or so we thought)…saw balloons outside the house that was on the invitation and walked right in! It only took a water bottle, a couple snacks, and thirty minutes to realize that I didn’t know the lady who the shower was being thrown for. Whoops! We introduced ourselves as the party crashers, grabbed our gift, and high tailed it out of there. 🙂 After that, the weekend was much more relaxing. We are currently experiencing our first ice storm of the season, so that means no work for daddy (well at the office at least), baby snuggles, and movie watching. We will probably get a workout in…it’s not very often that the hubby and I get to workout together!

^^Max is a big fan of Daddy being home all day.

Here are our meals for the week:

Monday: White Chicken Chili (recipe to follow)

Tuesday: Mexican meatloaf with mixed veggies

Wednesday: Chicken burritos with a big green salad

Thursday: Lemon baked chicken with spaghetti squash and mixed veggies

Friday: Vacation time! These Montanas are headed to Montana for another ski trip! The last one for us this season.

Here is our chicken chili recipe!

White Chicken Chili:

What you need:

4 chicken breasts

2 cans white beans

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 medium onion diced

2 4oz cans of green chilis

1 tbs olive oil

3 tbs flour

1 tbs chili powder

What you do:

Boil and shred your chicken breasts

Heat 1 tbs of oil over medium heat in saucepan. Add onion and green chilis until translucent. Add the 3 tbs of flour.

Place the onion and green chili mixture on the bottom of a crockpot. Add the chicken breasts, chicken broth, beans, and chili powder. Stir.

Cook on medium heat for 2 hours.

Easy peasy and so delicious!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

A “Walk Work-Out”

January 20, 2015 Taryn and Tavia3 Comments

One of the reasons we love living in Texas so much is the weather! Last week it was in the 30’s…and today it is 60 degrees and sunny! Baby Max, Bailey and I can’t wait to get our stroller out of hiding and go on a “walk workout”. Some of you may already know that I am not a runner…I mean I am the poster child for those t-shirts that say “If you see me running, you better run too because something is chasing me”. But I love being outside, so baby Max and I do things differently, we walk (at a fast pace) and mix in plyometrics to get my heart rate up and keep him entertained!

Here is what we did today!

Brisk walk for one block

20 jump squats

Brisk walk for one block

30 jump lunges

Brisk walk for one block

15 push-ups

Try it! Let me know what you think! My workout partners had a great time! 🙂

A Christmas Party

December 23, 2014December 23, 2014 Taryn and TaviaLeave a comment

There is something so special about Christmas time. The cozy decorated houses, the yummy candles, and the warm hearts that everyone seems to have make this time of year so special! We have been blessed this year with so much, the biggest blessing of them all being our little baby boy Max. I never knew how much love existed in our hearts until that little guy! This post is all about our little Christmas party we had this past weekend. I really don’t need to say much, the pictures speak for themselves!

^^That outdoor kitchen that is holding our Big Green Egg so perfectly was made from scratch by my handy hubby, chairs and all!

My sweet little niece is growing way too fast!

Baby Max got to meet his Auntie Brittney at the party..and if you look closely Uncle Reese is on Skype!

So many babies!

Uncle’s are always the best entertainment. Seriously.

The precious aftermath. Just daddy and baby enjoying the fire and Eddie the Moose. My heart is so full!

How are you guys spending your holidays?! Stay tuned for my packing/traveling with a baby post coming soon!

What We Ate Wednesday

December 18, 2014 Taryn and TaviaLeave a comment

I cannot believe it is already time for What We Ate Wednesday again! The weeks are flying by. We are 9 days out from Christmas and I am the farthest thing from prepared! With all the crazy that the holidays bring it is so important for me to stay on top of my meals! I try to eat in as much as possible. That is the easiest way for me to stay on track with all the holiday yumminess so easily accessible everywhere. Here is my day!

Breakfast: The usual. 3 egg yolks with 2 egg whites and half a cup of oatmeal.

Snack: A protein shake (orgain organic powder mixed with 2 cups almond milk) and a cocoa loco bar from Mimi’s house. Holy delicious.

Lunch: Taco Salad! Honestly, I wasn’t that excited about this lunch because we literally have nothing in our refrigerator. All we had was some salad and leftover taco meat from the night before. I heated up with meat with some sharp cheddar on top and then threw it all on a bed of super greens. It actually turned out delicious!

I also had a cup of Roiboos tea to go with it…if you have never tried Roiboos, try it! It is amazing and has so many health benefits!

Snack: 1 handful of almonds with about a cup of dried raspberries. I will probably never eat those little raspberries again…they are so sour!

Dinner: Faux fried chicken, super greens salad, and organic macaroni and cheese (my weakness..all in moderation y’all)

Faux friend chicken recipe:

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium size bowl add two whole eggs and mix well.

In a gallon size ziplock add 2 cups organic Panko bread crumbs and 3 tbs of parmesan cheese. Mix well.

Dip your chicken breasts in the eggs until fully coated and throw them into the ziplock bag mixture. Shake well.

Place coated chicken breasts on a baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes! Super east and super delicious.

What We Ate Wednesday

December 4, 2014December 5, 2014 Taryn and TaviaLeave a comment

I get asked all the time what I eat. So I have decided to show y’all! Every Wednesday I will post all of my meals and recipes! I don’t ever diet, ever. It is much easier for me to stay healthy if I have a good balance. What does that mean? I eat things like cookies and pizza every once in a while and I never deprive myself (that leads to bad decisions later!). I do my best to make sure we are eating organic ingredients all the time. None of that fake food is welcome in this Montana house! We don’t do artificial sweeteners, colors, fat free, low fat, etc etc. I have included Max’s little meals too, mostly because pictures are much cuter with his face!

Breakfast: My breakfast is almost always the same. I do 3 whole eggs + 2 egg whites with 1/2 cup of oatmeal and 1 banana mixed in (I add cinnamon for more flavor). I am pretty much addicted to orange juice, so I have my little glass every morning. Max enjoys his breakfast oatmeal at this time too 🙂

Snack: Ok, this is weird, and not a norm, but breastfeeding cravings have been way worse than any pregnancy craving! Lately, that craving has called for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I use two slices of bread, about 1 1/2 tbs peanut butter and 1/2 tbs jelly.

Lunch: Max and I ventured to our local Whole Foods to buy ingredients for our dinner so lunch was on the go. I made myself a salad from the salad bar at Whole Foods. Loaded that sucker up with spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, almonds, chicken, and a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I also had two tacos from the taco bar. (My phone died or I would have had photo evidence of this amazing lunch)

Snack: My favorite part of the day is my Orgain Organic protein shake. I mixed two scoops of the protein powder with 2 cups almond milk.

Dinner: With all this gloomy weather we have been having I have been in the mood for soups lately. I decided chicken chili was the way to go! This bad boy is the bomb.com.

Here is how its made:

1 onion chopped and placed on the bottom of the crockpot

3 chicken breasts

1 package taco seasoning

1 can black beans

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can corn

1 10oz can of tomato paste

1 can of rotel

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Layer all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. This made my house smell amazing!

While the hubby and I enjoyed our chicken chilli, Max was chowing down on some sweet potatoes and peas! He loves both! Yay!

And all of that, along with about a gallon of water, is how my Wednesday meals looked! What do y’all think?

A Practice Thanksgiving

November 25, 2014 Taryn and TaviaLeave a comment

Thanksgiving is one of my all time favorite holidays. I think because it is the start of the holiday season, or maybe it is because I love food. Yea, it’s because I love food. This past Sunday on our weekly grocery shopping trip, I decided that it would be more economical to buy a medium size turkey, roast it on Monday, and eat it before we hit the road for Kansas to spend Thanksgiving with family Wednesday morning. The hubby did not object. My idea was to make this mini Thanksgiving as clean as possible…it was such a success!! Little Max also got to grub down on some mashed sweet potatoes and actually liked them!

Here is what we had:

8lb organic whole turkey roasted at 325 for 3 hours

4 organic white potatoes mashed with 3 tbs plain Greek yogurt (these were BOMB)

1 package frozen organic green beans steamed

1 package organic stuffing mix (soo pumped to have found the organic kind at Whole Foods)

Brown gravy made from the turkey juices with 3 tbs flour added

This was SO easy. I will for sure be that person that randomly makes turkeys throughout the year. Plus, the leftovers are the best.

Stayed tuned for a recap of our actual Thanksgiving meal..and our annual Thanksgiving morning workout!

LOL his face doesn’t look as enthused as I remember….I promise, he liked them!!

Solids Y’all

November 22, 2014November 22, 2014 Taryn and TaviaLeave a comment

Well ladies and gentlemen, we have started solids in this Montana household. And to my dismay, Baby Max is not thrilled. At. All. We started with avocado. We had his Daddy, Mimi, Papa, and Auntie Kienna all here to witness his first bites of real food. At first, he was just excited because we were all cheering for him, and then, the reality of this ooey gooey new texture in his mouth set in. He gagged, gagged some more, and it all came back up. Poor guy. I knew this could happen so I wasn’t discouraged (yet). We tried again the next morning, and an even worse reaction. So we took a few days off, and tried carrots, fail. Then we tried oatmeal, by this time the kid gagged at the sight of his spoon. I felt so bad. He wasn’t ready. I don’t know why I felt like I had to rush him into solids. It seemed like that was the next milestone we needed to check off the list right at the six month mark. We have taken a few weeks off from trying new solids and just this morning we went back to the avocados. You can tell by these pictures how he felt. Ha!

He’s not super thrilled but this is a huge improvement from last time. There was one gag, and no throwing up. LOL! In a way, I’m selfishly glad he isn’t ready for solids. I am so not ready for our breastfeeding relationship to begin to end. Any of you other mamma’s experience this when starting solids?

They’re G-r-r-reat!

November 6, 2014 Taryn and TaviaLeave a comment

This Halloween will go down in the Montana family history book as the first (and maybe last) hand crafted costume years. Thanks to Pinterest, I got the idea of making Max Tony the Tiger from the Frosted Flakes cereal box. The picture I saw looked simple enough! Tiger costume, front pack with a little fabric, make a box, cut out the letters, easy peasy. Well, after countless hot glue gun blisters, a floor full of fabric scrappings, a kitchen table with a nice little layer of spray adhesive, and a happy baby in a tiger costume…it all came together perfectly! We all enjoyed baby Max’s first Halloween probably way more than he did!

Cousins first Halloween together! @zmontana47 @asingleton3

That precious little Minnie Mouse is Max’s cousin….seriously how cute are they?! I can’t wait for the years of trick or treating ahead of us!

What did your kiddos dress up as this year?!

Mama and Max’s Workout of the Day

August 5, 2014 Taryn and Tavia1 Comment

Today was an anti-nap kind of day in this Montana household. That can make a workout sans baby, well, impossible! So we loaded up the stroller, strapped on the dog’s collar, and headed out in this Texas heat! We strolled on over to the nearest park and completed this routine three times through:

30 seconds of jumping jacks (Baby Max finds these hilarious)

20 push-ups off the park bench

15 step-ups on each leg

20 tricep dips off the park bench

We finished it off by lunging around the park!

Mimi’s Workout of the Day

August 5, 2014August 5, 2014 Taryn and TaviaLeave a comment

Today’s workout began with a dog walk. I love, love, love, my early morning walks! So peaceful and pretty.

I usually workout at home before I head to the studio. Crazy right? But it works for me right now.

I completed the following in 28 minutes! All in my bathroom! I have a pull up bar in the door frame and I use the edge of the bathtub for my tricep dips. I have plated dumb bells, as you see posed with Sophie 🙂 I used 10 pounds today.

Total body home workout: I went through this line up 3 times.

8 pull ups/ the real ones baby! fully lower and fully lift

50 tricep dips

20 dumb bell curls

24 lunges