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tiffany

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In Cook

Meal Planning

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Just the words ‘Meal Planning’, ‘Meal Prep’ or the big doozy ‘What’s for Dinner’ can send you into a tailspin. Even though I love to cook and plan my meals, there are still nights where I don’t want to cook. Listen, we aren’t going for perfection here and 3 course meals every night. The overall goal is to eat healthier (drastically reduce eating out), save money and gather for a meal (at least a few nights a week).

I have officially been a Mom Chef in all stages of life, so I get it! It is a super stressful topic. I started cooking when I lived with two guys when I attempted college. I had my ‘go to’ meals. Taco salad – you know, the old school one with French dressing (I need to find this recipe – Mom??). I made Chinese chicken salad – another classic recipe from my Mom. I worked in an insurance office and this girl I worked with would give me recipes, as well. I still make her meatloaf to this day, it really is delicious. I make my own little alterations now…so easy and so good! Don’t mind the food spilled on my old recipe cards. Geez, I took credit for my Mom’s Japanese Salad back in 1995, I see.

Then I got married and cooked for the two of us. I learned the hard way the difference between a bulb and a clove of garlic. Let’s just say we had garlic coming out of our pores for a few days – true story. Then came baby number one, which was a juggle working full time, as well. I cooked, but it was an adjustment for sure. We definitely ate out more than we should have. Flash forward to baby number 2 and I became a stay at home Mom for a few years. I cooked most nights, while trying to heed to picky kids. I was the Mom making multiple meals (I do not recommend this).

This isn’t the exact counter thing I had, nor a photo of me and my kids (although this is a real depiction of what it was like some nights), but I highly recommend one of these if you have kiddos. It doubled as a puppet stage too.

I went back to the career world when my son (second born) was 4. This is when meals got very interesting…this was the birth of meal planning for me. There was no other way. Two kids in school, multiple sports and working full time. Mealtime was a struggle. I involved my kids in the kitchen from an early age. This requires a little patience, but please remind yourself that you don’t get those years back. Make the kitchen fun for them. Take deep breathes and just know things will get a little extra messy…but it is so worth it!

For those of you with multiple kids that are active (even one is difficult), meal planning is a must. To have quick and healthy snacks for your kids to grab before practice so their body is fueled and hydrated is part of the gig…although I recognize the struggle. I’m not here to shame ANYONE that stops at fast food here and there, I just want to offer you options. Meal planning and prepping doesn’t have to be fancy OR expensive (in fact, it can save you money) – you can make it what you want it to be. For instance, we often do breakfast for dinner. If you have a waffle maker, you can make a double batch and freeze the rest. Voila, you are more prepared for another meal. Throw some chicken breasts in a crockpot with a packet of taco seasoning and broth/water and you have shredded chicken for tacos, burritos, sandwiches or salads.

I’m in a new phase of adult children in and out and cooking for 1-5 mouths…and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have more time to explore more recipes and boy is my son spoiled. He’s the lucky recipient of most of my cooking these days. Even in this phase, meal planning is a must for me. I don’t like to have to guess what I’m making for dinner every night.

Please don’t tell me you don’t have time. I can remember bringing out my pad of paper and a few cookbooks to soccer tournaments and ordering my groceries for pick-up. Shop the grocery store ads and stick to a budget, I promise you will save money and even feel better for eating home-cooked meals. I challenge you to give it a shot. Most important, be proud of yourself for your creations…even when you make enchiladas with 2-3 BULBS of garlic! Do you want more meal prep or recipe ideas – shoot me a message. I’m happy to help.

Did you get yourself flowers yet? Go get those flowers and keep feeding them fresh water and trim the ends to make them last. Happy meal planning!

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In Heal

The Hard Things

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Last week I talked about Fear and Love. I think there is so much fear surrounding doing the hard things in life. And really…what isn’t difficult? Raising children, choosing the right career, falling in love, staying fit and healthy – these are TOUGH things! Shoot, sometimes getting out of bed in the morning is hard – I’ve been there. Some are just tougher than others and require you to take a chance.

Why do the right things tend to be the hardest things? Let’s think about this for a moment:

  • Telling your children ‘No’ – for whatever reason. They could harm themselves, you don’t have the money, the answer is just no. It’s the right thing, but it isn’t easy.
  • Waking up when your alarm goes off the FIRST time and perhaps getting in a workout first thing in the morning. Not easy, but the right thing for your mind and body.
  • Asking for a divorce. Heavy stuff…but if you know this is what is best for you, it’s the right thing to do. It doesn’t make it any easier. I know firsthand, it’s very hard to ask for a divorce.
  • Asking someone out for the first time. I always felt bad for the boys asking girls to a dance, how brave and hard. But, if they want to take that girl to a dance, it’s the right thing.
  • Losing weight because it is at a point where it is actually affecting your health. This is not an easy feat. Most folks have had the same habits for years. Again, the right thing is hard.
  • Telling someone you love them. This takes so much courage and you know it’s the right thing to say, but it doesn’t make those words any easier to come out of your mouth.
  • Accepting or turning down a job offer. Scary stuff, especially for your kiddos joining the work force for the first time. Hard decisions, but you will make the right one for you.
  • Moving away to somewhere new. I know so many folks that have taken the bold leap to leave what they know and plunge into something new and different. Turned out to be the right thing, but definitely scary.

I could go on and on with examples. What are you holding back doing because it’s hard? Let’s make a pact, as this is my theme right now. Let’s get comfortable with getting uncomfortable. I’m not saying that jumping into something new (whatever that looks like for you) is going to be smooth sailing, but just think about what could happen if you starting living this amazing fulfilling life that you didn’t know was available to you? Often times, the right decisions are the toughest and that is what gives us more strength and courage to continue to face the hard things. Please don’t sit around and complain about what you don’t have if you aren’t willing to go do the hard things and work for what you want! If you don’t like something, change it, this is YOUR life and you CAN do hard things!

Completely off topic, but my new menu is up. You can access all menu’s HERE. I love that some of you are getting inspired, even my own daughter. I got this message from her last week and it made my heart so happy!

Wishing you a magical week ahead, filled with beautiful moments, maybe a little risk and things that bring you pure joy. I encourage you to take a leap into doing the hard things. Will you fall on your face sometimes, you sure will…but that is where you just gain more tools and get stronger. Falling on your face is where the lessons are learned. Together, let’s erase the fear behind doing the hard things.

Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.

I’m going to go dive back into my new book. This is book 2 of this Housemaid series. I couldn’t put down the first one and my daughter said all 3 were page turners. I’d love your book suggestions too. Thank you for your support and your sweet messages – I very much appreciate you. Lastly, permission granted to get yourself some beautiful flowers – you deserve it!

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In Love

Love and Fear

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I was recently listening to my favorite podcaster Mel Robbins. If you aren’t already listening, check her out, she covers some great topics. She had an Asian American woman on the show that was talking about how, in her culture, she had never really heard the words ‘I Love You’ from her parents. She said that was typical of her culture. There is clearly much more to the podcast and it was a great episode (I won’t ruin it), but I couldn’t help but wonder how can you not tell your children you love them. Then it dawned on me, I’m sure they never heard it either. Perspective! We are products of our environment, we only know what we know. As humans, we need love – to love and accept ourselves AND to be and feel loved. On my journey, I have definitely had to learn to love myself. Expressing love for yourself and others isn’t easy, but it is worth it.

I’m currently reading Conversations with God and I keep re-reading parts because they are just so powerful. This one is worth sharing…

All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by one of two emotions – fear or love. In truth there are only two emotions – only two words in the language of the soul.

~Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations with God – book 1)

This couldn’t be more true. Think about it, I mean REALLY think about it. I have lived a good chunk of my life in fear. I had fear surrounding starting this blog and then ironically I dove into what I LOVE – writing, cooking and helping others. Voila, my blog was born out of both fear AND love!

I received this awesome quote from a friend. Thank you for sending this, people NEED this reminder, I needed this reminder. Take that leap into the unknown and punch fear right in the face. No such thing as failing, just lessons (thank you to another friend for that amazing reminder). I’m personally working on not overthinking things and just doing (like Nike says – Just Do It). Overthinking is fear-based. When we release that idea of perfection (what is perfection anyway) and Just Do It…then we have replaced Fear with Love. We need to love ourselves enough to know that what we are saying and doing is coming from a place of love and how others receive your message is on THEM. I’m going to repeat that for the folks in the back row…if what we are saying and doing is coming from a place of love, how others receive your message is on THEM.

The biggest take away I’d love for you to have from this post is to learn to love YOU! After all, you are around yourself the most. Sounds silly, but it’s true. It’s not selfish to love yourself or do things for yourself. You know the saying – You can’t pour from an empty cup. Fill up that cup with all the things that bring you pure joy!

And this has zero to do with love or fear. Just sharing that sometimes THIS is dinner. I still made flank steak for my son, but was craving these roll-up’s (turkey, laughing cow cheese and pickled asparagus – don’t knock it ’till you tried it).

I’d love to hear from you – comments, questions, suggestions, I will take it all in. Thank you for your support. Permission to go buy yourself some flowers and one more permission slip this time – permission to spread love and love YOU, just as you are.

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In Cook

Get Cookin’

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Happy Saturday…although by the time I publish this it might be Sunday! First of all, can we please talk about this gorgeous thrown together salad I made for lunch today? Mixed greens, left over BBQ chicken, cucumber, tomato, green onion, goat cheese, beets and pistachios, topped with lemon olive oil and fig balsamic. TO DIE FOR!

I had an awesome day. The ironic part is that I had SO many things to cross off my list today and things didn’t quite go that way. I started my morning with my first private Pilates session with my niece. Uhhhh, I bow to those of you that do Pilates on a regular basis. Wowzer – What a great workout. I will keep all you local folks posted when my niece will start conducting private sessions (nudge nudge), she was awesome!

I hit Trader Joe’s on my way home and picked up a few things…

TJ’s Orange Chicken is always in my freezer. We love this stuff. Funny that my son eats it without the sauce, so I serve the sauce separately. This makes for such an easy weeknight dinner. THEN, I grabbed a bag of these Wicked Good Chocolate bars for my candy dish to try something new. Go ahead and grab yourself a few bags of these, I promise you won’t be disappointed. I love strolling around Trader Joe’s – SO much great stuff!

When I got home, I made that amazing salad and turned on the TV. There was a show that popped up called ‘Lonely Planet’. I always get sucked right into Rom Com’s. Ironically, the main character, Laura Dern, is a writer and is writing a book. I will leave out my thoughts on the movie, in case you want to watch. For me, yet another sign to keep writing my book. I ended up taking a nice Saturday afternoon nap. I’m not a napper, but after the crazy week I had, it was lovely. I highly suggest a weekend nap from time to time – recharge yourself!

I had to Google nap info and naps can actually be quite beneficial

I’m fully aware that not everyone get’s super excited when it comes to cooking and meal planning. I love a good chilly weekend morning, curled up on the couch with a hot cup of tea, surrounded by cookbooks and Food Network (yes, complete nerd status). One of my all time favs on Food Network is Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. My Mother gave me an amazing 50th birthday gift this year and took me to where Ree Drummond makes all of her magic happen in Oklahoma (I will elaborate in another post). This trip helped with my inspiration for this blog too…just another sign.

My cooking inspiration…

I must pay my respect to my beautiful Mother and Aunt. They are both fantastic cooks (and amazing humans). I aspire to be as good as they are one day. I’m a total recipe follower and they are ‘add a little of this and a little of that’ type cooks…and it always tastes fantastic.I’m incredibly blessed to have these two beautiful souls in my life!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. I will update last week’s meal plan under the ‘Cook’ tab (once I make my Sunday dinner). My meal plan got a little off track this week, but the food was awesome. We tried the Pumpkin Overnight Oats this morning and I will absolutely put that into rotation. I also bought myself some flowers today – I think these bouquets are $4 at TJ’s. Don’t just throw them in a vase either, take a few minutes to cut the stems and arrange them…I promise it will make you smile! Permission to buy yourself flowers.

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In Heal

Purpose

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Definition of Purpose:
An abiding intention toward a long-term goal that is both
personally meaningful and makes a positive mark on the world.
The Reason for which something exists or is done, made, used.

Wow, I did it! I’m still relishing in the fact that I actually accomplished a big goal. I finally published my blog. My insides were tingling when I was on the phone with my brother as he was talking me through my final touches (BIG thanks to my brother for his technical guidance and assistance) . My eyes welled up with tears and I felt so proud of myself. I couldn’t quite pin point how I was feeling in that moment – it was just such a cool feeling.

It’s funny, I didn’t set out to write a bog. What I’ve been trying to do for years is write a book (stay tuned) or create a cooking show (who knows – still might happen). As I started to create a dream board and really take personal inventory, my heart was drawn to this. THIS is my outlet. THIS is where I can really try to help people…and myself. Writing AND cooking are both therapeutic for me.

Anyhoo, I’d be remiss if I wasn’t fully transparent and shared how I celebrated on Sunday night – I’m such a party animal. I made a lovely dinner (my green beans were off the hook) and then celebrated with an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s. Yep! I ate the whole thing with zero regrets (well, maybe a little regret). By the way, if you haven’t tried this flavor, it’s a must! Why do they make these in this size? It is such great and horrible idea all at the same time.

Pulling this blog together and putting myself out there hasn’t been as simple as I anticipated. I was chatting with a friend yesterday and was really trying to find the right word for how I was feeling, because I just felt so good, happy and peaceful. I found it, the right word is FREE! I’ve been quiet for a VERY long time and to create an outlet to be so free, feel good about what I’m putting out there AND hoping to touch the lives of others…FREE!

My journal prompt yesterday morning was ‘What is your Purpose’. What?! The universe just keeps talking to me. That really made me think, what a thought provoking question. I think I am on a journey to find my pupose.

I feel peaceful and free. I’m on a journey to find my purpose.

So, I’m about to fall asleep last night and my phone dinged. I’ve Got Mail. I got my first ‘Contact Me’ message and was so giddy to open it. I had instant tears. I received the most beautiful and inspiring message. I’ve received some touching messages of support from my friends and family, but this one hit different for sure. THIS is exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing. I want to give people permission to live a free and fulfilling life, whatever that looks like for you. I have zero intentions of hurting anyone’s feelings in my blog OR my book. But, here’s what I will no longer do…I will no longer minimize my feelings and speaking my truth for fear of hurting someone else’s feelings. It’s not easy being quiet and unheard for so many years. Perhaps through this journey with me, you will find your voice too…and your purpose!

Two things I want to leave you with (technically 3)…

  1. What is your purpose? What a deep thought. Why do you do what you do? What mark do you want to leave on this earth? Leave a comment, shoot me a message, write it down for yourself – but state it somewhere.
  2. I can do hard things (and kinda feel like a badass when I do)…and SO CAN YOU! I’m not going to elaborate, as this is a whole separate blog post, but GO DO THE HARD THINGS!

Lastly, I told you I was going to give you permission every time I post to buy yourself flowers. I don’t care if you are a man or a woman, how old or young you are. Do you live near wild flowers and can pick them? Pick a few and put them in a vase or even a wine glass. It doesn’t need to cost you anything. You can also get small boquets at Trader Joe’s very cheap (I’m very sorry if you don’t live near a Trader Joe’s). Put a few flowers in your kitchen, bathroom and/or bedside table. I promise they will make you smile – what a magical way to start your day. A kind person in my life told me that beautiful people deserve beautiful flowers. Permission to buy yourself flowers!

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In Heal

Hello World…and Welcome to my Blog

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8/24/24

So, it’s kind of like when people ask me ‘How did you know it was time for a divorce?’.  And I always reply with what a very wise friend said to me one time, ‘You will know.  You get hit with feathers of signs and then one day you get hit with a brick’.  That is what I feel right now – I got hit by another brick…but in such a magical cool way.  I love to write, I love to take photos, I love to help others and I love to meal plan and cook.  I need to get my blog off the ground. [As you can see the time I wrote this, is not today’s date. Getting up a blog isn’t as easy as it looks.] I turned 50 this year and got a divorce at 49 (after being together for 30 years).  Don’t feel sorry for me, I’m good.  Everything happens for a reason.  I have two incredible kids that I love watching in this phase of their lives and I’m in a beautiful space.

I’ve been in support groups, I listen to podcasts, read books, and just want to spread joy…help others find joy, even on those days when you have to dig a little deeper.  This blog isn’t about my divorce (that’s what my book is for), it’s about living again.   I don’t promote divorce,  I promote peace – you have to figure it out.  It’s about Chapter 2, it’s about truly going after what has been pulling at you for so long, it’s about celebrating being alive.  I told someone tonight that I tend to plan and not follow through on things that I want to do, as I’m so afraid to fail (most of us are).  Well, if one person subscribes (or however this works) to my blog and they have a better day or feel like a gift to this world, just for one day…then I’ve done what I’ve set out to do.  If just one (insert sport here – mine was soccer) Mom/Dad reads this and gets an idea to make meals easier for the week and that helps relieve a little stress…then I will feel accomplished.  If one person reads this and they push themselves to do something they’ve always wanted to do…that will feel so dang cool.  I’m taking a leap in the hopes that even one of those scenarios comes true.

It is never easy reaching for dreams, but those who reach walk in stardust.

Look, I don’t claim to have all of the answers on how to heal yourself (shoot, I’m still a work in progress), I love to cook (I’m decent at it and it brings me peace) and I love LOVE (leaning into loving my life, my relationships, traveling, my job and myself…all of it, we just need to love a little more).  What I want to bring to you is a little perspective on life.  Life isn’t always easy, but it certainly is what WE make it.  I want to take you on a healing journey with me.  I was once asked if I will ever be done listening to podcasts or reading self-help type books and my immediate response, without hesitation, was nope.  I always want to be a better version of me, that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of myself…we are all works in progress especially as we travel through all the different seasons of life.  I will give you my weekly menu with credit going out to all of the wonderful cooks I follow on TV, Instagram, Facebook, Cookbooks (I have a cookbook obsession).  I will give you my insight on what love means to me, share quotes that move me (I have a bit of a quote obsession as well) and leave you with permission to buy yourself flowers (I’m serious). 

Life doesn’t have to be fancy, it just needs to be what brings you fulfillment!  Tonight, getting this first blog written, with some good tunes in the background…simply made me happy. 

Ciao…and don’t forget about the flowers!

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