Just Say Julie

Chris and I have been doing Weight Watchers since the end of July with a pretty decent amount of success.  I've lost 16 pounds and he has lost about 20.  I think we have both stalled a bit which I hate with the holidays coming up because I wanted to be closer to my goal so I could relax a bit and enjoy some of my favorite seasonal foods. But I figure I can still enjoy my holiday favorites in moderation and really hit the diet hard again after the first of the year. I'm still pretty motivated to lose weight, especially when I see a picture of myself with a roll right above the waist of my jeans.  One of the things that has helped us be so successful on our diet was the menu planning we have been doing using WW friendly recipes. I found a lot of recipes that we really got excited about trying. As people who loved food, this is just what we need so we wouldn't be as tempted to cheat. One of my favorite new recipes that I discovered was the taco soup my boss made for us ...

Jackson turns one in 16 days.  I have been in the throws of party planning for a couple of months now.  I rted down one path with the party theme but changed my mind about half way through after seeing how Jackson reacted to the characters on Veggie Tales.  So instead of "The New Sheriff in Town" theme I started out with, we are going for a Veggie Tales theme.  I got lucky because I found a lot of the decorations on the Veggie Tales website and they were on sale at the time.  But I have been struggling with coming up with the perfect cake.  My internet searches uncovered a lot of ugly Veggie Tales cakes.  You would be surprised how bad people can make a cucumber and a tomato look.  And then I found it!  Wilton makes a Larry and Bob cake pan that comes with instructions on how to decorate it.  Perfect! Or so you would think.  The pan is discontinued.  So I started a quest to find this cake pan.  I found it on eBay...

I figured a fitting follow up to my post on grocery shopping would to discuss how I handle menu planning.  I must say this is something I have had a hard time figuring out.  I don't think I ever planned a menu during the entirety of my first marriage.  I would just go to the store and buy things that could make up a meal with no real idea what I was going to make.  And then I would discover that I didn't have all the stuff I needed to make whatever meal I decided on so I would either run to the store again or scrap the meal all together. Honestly, I have only really heard about menu planning in the last couple of years because several of the bloggers I follow post their menu plans on their blogs.  Seeing these posts got me thinking.  So I decided to try my hand at menu planning.  I don't remember when I started exactly.  Some time before Jackson was born I think.  But I didn't really start being diligent about it till I went back to work f...

I really think Chris and I are getting the hang of this menu planning thing.  I typically spend some time on either Saturday or Sunday selecting the recipes I'd like to use each week and comparing that to weekly ads for any deals that make help make my decision.  We are also trying to be better about eating our leftovers.  By doing this, we have been able to make most of our meal plans last us two weeks instead of the one they were originally planned for.  This is really helping our grocery budget go down.  I am still getting most of my recipes from Pinterest and we've been pretty pleased with a lot of what we have tried.  Here is a list of the ones we have tried recently: Mexican Casserole : This one was easily a family favorite.  We ate off the casserole two nights and Sean asked for seconds both times.  Even Chris, who doesn't like beans, thought this was great.  I did leave out the onions and we used mild Rotel to save on the spiciness....

Thanks to Jackson waking up early this morning, I actually have a little time to blog.  (He's currently rolling around on the floor...yes, he's rolling!)  So I decided to post a couple of the dishes I have found on Pinterest recently.  (If you are not on Pinterest yet, get thee to Pinterest!)  I have a ton of recipes pinned (and lots of other things as well) but I have only made 4 so far.  Two we loved and two we were meh about so here are the two we loved: Crockpot Potato Soup Y'all, I loved this so much the first time that I have already made it a second time.  When I was sick two weeks ago, this is what I wanted.  The soup is quite tasty but not too heavy.  It is also a great base to be played with.  Add cheese, bacon bit, sour cream, whatever you want!  Chris and I have already discussed ways we can expand this soup to make it more interesting.  Plus, it's easy!  Dump everything in your slow cooker for 6 hours.  Ad...