Valentines Day Shirts

I have been playing around with making shirts and it has been so fun!!
I posted a few I made on my website: www.facebook.com/JoyfulBlessings
And the orders came rolling in...

So here is a pic of one of my orders completed. A nurse wrote to me about two sisters who have Hurlers Syndrome - she wanted to order Valentines Shirts.
Here is a photo of them almost finished...

Go to the website above to see finished ones...

Want to order?? Head over to Joyful Blessings on facebook!
Thanks!

Chicken!

This week, I ran out of grocery money so I have been having to improvise!
Day one was a Chicken Milanese - Which I had everything for!
Here is that meal! It was so good!!

And today was supposed to be Shrimp Scampi, but I didnt have the items for that so I move don to Wednesday - which I had everything for, but it was so similar to yesterdays, I changed it up a bit - it called for rice, but I opted to use noodles - and it is def not gluten free as I didnt have the right noodles...

It was a Chicken Broccoli Casserole and it was GOOOOOD!!!

Here is a photo of that...

Yummmm!

Minestrone Soup

Todays Menu included Minestrone soup - one of my faves!
Usually I make it with shell noodles, but since this is gluten free - we used rice. ( the recipe called for quinoa).

Everyone loved it, we added in addition to the recipe - zucchini and celery and some extra chicken broth...

Steak Fajitas

The menu today is Steak fajitas. With skirt steak - which looks nasty. I mean real nasty. People eat this stuff?  Look, I am a beef lover. I would eat steak every day if I could. But skirt steak looks gross. Its all fatty and stuff. Blech. But I am doing this menu plan at Fresh 20 to try out new things. Stuff I have never cooked or stuff I have cooked with a healthy twist.  I have cooked fajitas before, but not with skirt nasty steak.

All that being said. I cooked it wrong and sliced it wrong.  I followed directions. But I shouldnt have. I should have done it the way I *thought* it should have been done. But anyways. It was tough. Literally.

So we sat there eating and had a good laugh as the table fell silent and all we could hear was chewing. We all stopped looked at each other and laughed. Yep. Chewy. And while I am complaining - I dont like the corn tortillas either. So there.

So here are the photos of the evening.

Chili and Chicken tacos!! Ole!

And mexican week continues!

Here we have chicken tacos with a rice and veggie salad- ( we discovered we arent really fans of corn tortillas) But ate them anyways...
Chicken was spicy according to the kids, so next time, less spice...
For them at least, LOL

And the chili was astounding and had tons of hidden veggies, if your family doesnt like those sorts of things... My kids prefer veggies over meat so they were pleased to have it mixed in...
This was supposed to be served with home made corn chips - but I burnt them... Dang it!
I am NOT posting the photo of that! LOL!!

Enjoy this feast of the eyes!

Spaghetti Bolognese

Welcome back!

This week seems to have a mexican theme for The Fresh 20's Meal plans...
Super excited because in my house, my kids LOVE this food!

Monday was a Spaghetti Bolognese. What does this have to do with mexican cuisine? Well, not much, but the sauce did have cumin in it...

And I am going to admit something publicly here. Because we are all friends right?
I am not going to be using the gluten free noodles any more. I know, I know. I am doing the gluten free menu right?!? Well truth is, my family just doesnt like them, and I am throwing them out and it seems wasteful! So if and when I can, I will substitute the noodles for rice, if not then I will use real italian noodles.

So in the future when you see photos, I WILL let you know which is which!

That being said, I DID use white rice noodles with this recipe. I thought it was great! But the rest of the fam, not so much. We did have a guest for dinner, my brothers AMAZING girl friend, who had baby sat our kids for us today. And I forced her to try it. She didnt seem to mind - but my amazingly picky brother stopped by... Then the fun began! This man, doesnt eat anything, I mean ANYTHING! He hates veggies! And I thought for SURE he would NOT eat the noodles. HE scarfed the plate down!! And the recipe had a cup of shredded carrots! He ate it!! Yowza! That is saying a lot! haha!!!

Anyways, here is the photo I took of my plate before I scarfed MY plate down!

Turkey, Ham and Mushroom - Oh My!

I have clearly been slacking this week! Or just havent had time, I am SO sorry!

Here are the meals I prepared for the rest of this week.
They were all hit EXCEPT - the mushroom linguine. Which, by the way, I was looking forward to the most! I was so sad! My husband and I managed to get it down, but the kids didnt even touch it. I take that back, they did try it, but made a face. Skylar even refused my offer of cookies to eat it! Geesh!

It probably would have been better with non-gluten free pasta, or more oil, or more cheese. Something. It just lacked flavor. And the citrus dressing was sooooo citrus-y. Ah well. Cant win them all!

Here are the photos combined into one post!
Enjoy!
And like always, the recipes can be found at The Fresh 20...

Valentines Day Shirts

I have been feeling crafty this week. And a woman from one of my facebook groups decided to post a photo of a cute couple of V~Day shirts.

"I could do that", I shouted with glee. Ok well maybe not glee and maybe I didnt even shout, Oh heck I never even said it out loud. But in my head it was with glee and shouted, alright?!?! Dont judge me!

WHATEVER!

Anyways, i decided to go ahead and try with the boys shirts, okay they came out kinda crappy. But hey, they are going on my kids and my kids dont care. So then I finished those and thought I would step up my game for my daughters. I found a picture online and outlined it. An TA~DA her shirt was designed.

They love them by the way!
My husband on the other hand, sighed. And then went on about something along the lines of our kids being teenagers with christmas tree shirts or something, I dont know I stopped listening. Let my babies be babies. They will never grow, NEVER I tell you!

So here is the pics I took, of cell phone quality, at night, in my poorly lit bedroom.

Lemon Chicken and Tangerine Green Beans

Lemon Chicken and Tangerine Green Beans -
Does this kinda sound like a rock band to you?

Well whatever it was pretty good!
I LOVED the beans, but my kids hated them. Bummer.

I cheated and used minute brown rice, and its LIES all LIES - Minute? More like 15 minute! I could have used my rice steamer in the same amount of time. Lesson Learned.

Reminder we are using The Fresh 20 Meal Plans Gluten Free!!

Here is your picture:

Turkey Cutlets and Sweet Potatoes

Today on the menu was Turkey Cutlets with a creamy Mushroom Sauce, served with a maple butter Sweet Potato.
This dinner was fantastic, like, eat it every day fantastic!
I scraped the edges of my potato and even said MMMM sounds!
I am going to go out here and say I have NEVER made a real baked sweet potato. I was always an eat it out of the can girl. So this was huge for me! It was delicious!!

Here is your food porn!

Pizza Potatoes with Kale - Gluten Free

Fridays dinner I was REALLY looking forward to!

Anything to do with pizza and potatoes sounds like a hit for the whole family!
It didnt let us down.

Minus the fact that I burnt the kale - minus the fact that I didnt cook the potato all the way through. Hey, Im learning here!!

They were mighty tasty and Dakota gave them two thumbs up! He LOVED the potatoes!!

Week one, gluten free went pretty smoothly!
I am pretty happy about that for sure!

Here is our obligatory photo for your drooling pleasure!

Greek Chicken & Warm Spinach Salad - Gluten Free

Tonights menu was Greek Chicken with a warm spinach salad.

I marinated the chicken for 4 hours and it was amazing! The recipe called for boneless skinless, but they didnt have that at my local grocery store. So I bought bone in. It was still amazing, and I never eat the skin anyways.
The spinach salad on the other hand - wellllll - my daughter and I didnt really care for it. It was really tomato-ish. Maybe if I cut the tomato amount in half next time. Im not sure, it just felt like it was missing something.

Anywho - it was still good, and still gluten free!

The Fresh 20

Peasant Bean Stew

So today is day three of the gluten free diet for us.
We are all so sick in this house, we have no voices, sore throats, fevers.
I was super excited that the plan was a stew today.

Peasant Stew to be exact.

And it was a hit. It was actually very very delicious. My daughters only complaint was the sausage - she ate the KALE!!!! What!! I know!

Anyways here are the photos!
Again this is The Fresh 20 Plan gluten free...

Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Parmesan Kale Beans

Last night was night #2 for gluten free eating for me.
I must confess I have already started getting headaches, I assume from my body detoxing a bit and the fact that I havent had any soda in two days.
But thats okay, it means its working right??

Last night was supposed to be Salmon with Roasted red pepper sauce and a side of beans with Kale.
I dont eat fish, so I changed it to chicken. I thought it was very good. Still not sure if I like kale. But I ate it. The kids all loved the chicken, my daughter tried but didnt like the beans. ( I really think she didnt like the kale). And both boys ate everything. Of course.

I really thought the kale would cook down like a spinach but it didnt. It fought me to the bitter end. ( see what I did there - bitter/kale)  but it held its crunch.

Here are some shots I took of it...

All in all, we ate, our bellies are full and not full of gluten. Score!
Stay tuned for more!!

Italian Polenta Bake- Gluten Free

 Well here it is, the first gluten free recipe that is not my own...
It was delicious!!
It consisted of polenta, turkey sausage, mushrooms, onion, tomato puree, and mozzarella cheese!!
With a spinach salad on the side.

I highly recommend it!!
www.thefresh20.com

Poof Be GONE Gluten!

My husband and I decided a while back we wanted to try a gluten free diet. I went to Publix with high hopes. I left with a few boxes of gluten free pasta and a bag of gluten free flour. I had no idea what I was doing. So I gave up.

A month or so later - a friend posted about this really awesome website..

The Fresh 20

It gives you meal plans, shopping lists and recipes - Classic, Gluten Free or Vegetarian.

I researched it and prayed on it and finally decided to take the plunge. I requested a free sample of what the menu may be like and it sounded amazing. So I signed up.

I printed out my list and recipes and went to the grocery store today.


Here is my menu this week...

Italian Polenta Mozzarella Bake with a Spinach Salad
Chicken Breast ( was supposed to be salmon but I don't do fish) with roasted red pepper sauce and Parmesan Cannellini Beans
Peasant Bean Stew
Greek Chicken with a warm Spinach and rice salad
Twice Baked Pizza Potatoes with sauteed garlicky Kale

Sounds good right?
Well this will be fun for me, and broaden my pallatte because I have never had polenta or kale in my life!!
And it will be fun for me to learn more recipes and think out side the box!

My kids?? They arent picky at all and usually eat what is put before them, and if they dont, they dont eat. Yep, I am one of those moms... but like I said they arent picky and usually eat everything with a few exceptions!!

I am excited for this journey!
Stay tuned as for my thoughts on the meals!!