Breakfast Pizza

I cracked five raw eggs on a pizza... gross right... no delicious! I have never really made homemade pizza before so I was pretty intimidated with doing it. Luckily, I have a husband who is a good cook and he helped coach me through this first time. After making it though I wondered why Dan and I ever get take out pizza. Hello... homemade is the way to go folks!

Breakfast Pizza (www.budgetbytes.com) $3.24

Ingredients

• Refrigerated pizza dough 
• ½ cup pizza sauce
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 1 medium roma tomato
• 3 oz. ham
• 5 large eggs
• 2 sliced green onions
• 1 Tbsp corn meal
• 1 green pepper

If using frozen pizza dough, allow it to come to room temperature before stretching it into shape (it is much more cooperative at room temp). While the dough is thawing, slice the tomato, green onion, green pepper and dice the ham.

 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a perforated pizza pan with non-stick spray and sprinkle with corn meal. Stretch the dough into a pizza pan.

Top the pizza with sauce, half of the cheese, the tomatoes, ham, green onions, green peppers,eggs and the remaining half of the cheese (I used monterrey jack on the bottom and cheddar on the top). The eggs can either be placed on top whole and raw or pre-scrambled and sprinkled over top.

Bake the pizza for about 15 minutes at 450 degrees or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

This pizza was very good. Who would have thought eggs on a pizza??? Dan rated this meal a 4 out of 5 stars and I'm excited to make my second homemade pizza ;)

Mileage Monday

Stats for the week of February 16th - February 22nd... Goodness gracious! I am so ready for spring time! Anyone else out there have spring fever! I'm so ready to get outside and take Remi for long walks and Frisbee time at the diamonds by our house! These negative temps are not what I consider fun.

I have been continuing to walk, walk, and walk some more at work, but can no longer wear my dress shoes since my feet are starting to swell up and hurt some from being on my feet so much. I also finally told my supervisor that I couldn't swing driving the bus and transporting residents to and from the store, restaurants, doctor appointments, etc. It has just become too difficult and uncomfortable to bend and move them around and I'm not even that big yet. It will be interesting to see how I feel as the months move forward...

Monday, February 16th, 2015 - 11, 229 total steps / 3.6 total miles / 233 calories

Tuesday, February 17th 2015 - 9,713 total steps / 3.2 total miles / 208 calories

Wednesday, February 18th, 2015 - 14,222 total steps / 4.6 total miles / 258 calories

Thursday, February 19th, 2015 - 13, 257 total steps / 4.3 total miles / 270 calories

Friday, February 20th 2015 - 13,824 total steps / 4.5 total miles / 252 calories

Saturday, February 21st, 2015 - 2,081 total steps / .6 total miles / 17 calories

Sunday, February 22nd, 2015 - 3,111 total steps / .9 total miles / 20 calories

Totals for the week : 67,437 total steps / 21.7 total miles / 1,258 calories

Mileage Monday

Stats for the week of February 9th - February 15th... trying to keep my running and endurance up during the winter time is a struggle every year, but trying to do it while pregnant has been pretty non-existent... and what I have realized this week is that it's no big deal I haven't kept up with my running. There will always be time to run and build my endurance back up after I have this baby so if I feel like laying down on the couch instead of lacing up my tennis shoes after work... guess what, I can do that!

For the most part I feel like I have stayed more active than most during this pregnancy. I have continued to try an eat well and get as much rest as I can. I'm the kind of person that puts a lot of pressure on myself to, for lack of a better word... "be perfect." But during this time I'm really going to concentrate on just not sweating the small stuff and enjoying this time sitting around stuffing my face :)

Monday, February 9th, 2015 - 9,065 total steps / 2.9 total miles / 152 calories

Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 - 17,011 total steps / 5.3 total miles / 577 calories

Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 - 18,523 total steps / 6.1 total miles / 606 calories

Thursday, February 12th, 2015 - 6,830 total steps / 2.2 total miles / 106 calories

Friday, February 13th, 2015 - 7,324 total steps / 2.4 total miles / 133 calories

Saturday, February 14th, 2015 -10,009 total steps / 3.2 total miles / 207 calories

Sunday, February 15th, 2014 -  10,004 total steps / 3.2 total miles / 206 calories

Totals for the week : 78,766 total steps / 25.3 total miles / 1,987 calories

Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs

Guys! I have been cooking so much lately that I haven't had time to post all my meals to the blog. I'm going to try to get caught up so you all can see how amazingly well my husband has been eating :) This one that your about to see was good, but I'm not a huge meat eater so it wasn't anything special to me really. However, my thoughts don't really matter to me... it's Dan opinions that count.

Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs (www.budgetbytes.com) $10.98

Ingredients

• 1 med yellow onion
• 1 rack (2.5 lbs.) pork spare ribs
• 18 oz. bbq sauce
• 1 cup apple sauce
• ½ cup apple juice
• to taste salt and pepper 

Thinly slice the onion and place it in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Cut the ribs into two rib portions. Season with salt and pepper.

Arrange half of the ribs in on top of the onion in the slow cooker. Cover with half of the BBQ sauce.

 Place the rest of the ribs on top and cover with the rest of the BBQ sauce. 

Pour the apple sauce and apple juice in around the edges of the ribs so it fills in the spaces between meat without washing off all of the BBQ sauce.

Secure the lid tightly on the slow cooker, turn on low heat and let cook for 8 hours. When the ribs are done, carefully remove them from the pot. They will be very tender and can fall apart easily so lift gently. 

 Fish out the onions and serve on top of the ribs.

Dan rated this meal a 4 out of 5 stars. It was good and easy, but not something I would crave.

Creamy Spinach and Sausage Pasta

Any dinner that pasta is the main dish is a winner for me, so when I found this recipe I was in heaven. I just needed to make sure it included some kind of meat ;) SCORE!

Creamy Spinach and Sausage Pasta (www.budgetbytes.com) $5.91

Ingredients

• 6 oz. smoked sausage
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes w/chiles
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 8 oz. pasta
• 3 cups fresh spinach
• 1 cup (4 oz.) shredded monterrey jack
• 1 whole green onion 

Thinly slice the smoked sausage and add it to a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the sausage over medium heat until it is nicely browned (about 5-7 minutes). Drain off the excess fat.

 

Dice the onion and add it to the skillet. Continue to saute until the onion has softened (about 5 minutes). 

Add the can of diced tomatoes with chiles and the chicken broth. Stir to combine and dissolve any browned bits off of the bottom of the skillet.

Add the uncooked pasta to the skillet and make sure it is all submerged under the liquid. Place a lid on the skillet and allow the mixture to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for about ten minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Stir once or twice while the pasta cooks to keep it from sticking.

Stir in the fresh spinach, one cup at a time, until wilted. If you add it all at once, the skillet will be too full to stir. Keep the heat on while adding the spinach, so the liquid will continue to simmer and thicken.

Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top, replace the lid, and let it sit for a few minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Slice the green onions and sprinkle them over top. Serve hot!

 

Dan rated this meal a 4.5 out of 5 stars. He was pleasantly surprised that he liked this so much! He was even excited to eat it as leftovers the next day. I too thought it was pretty dang good! YUM! I would definitely make it again, plus the clean up was super easy since you basically just use one pan.

Teriyaki Pork Sandwiches

Dan and I are trying to stick to a budget as much as possible these days. One of the ways we have tried to do that is cooking at home instead of eating out so much. And... let's face it... this will soon be our life once this baby comes so I might as well get some practice in. Anyways, here I go again trying to domesticate myself ;)

Teriyaki Pork Sandwiches (budgetbytes.com)

Ingredients

• 3 lbs. pork butt roast (boston butt)
• 1 medium sweet onion
• 1 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 can (15 oz.) pineapple slices
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 8 pack hamburger/sandwich buns 

Slice the onion and place it in the bottom of your slow cooker.

Remove the pork roast from it’s wrapper and remove any netting surrounding the meat (if any). Cut the pork roast into a few large chunks and place in a single layer in the slow cooker. If desired, trim fat from the pork roast before placing in the slow cooker.

Pour one cup of teriyaki sauce over the pork roast. Pour the juice from the can of pineapple into the slow cooker as well. Save the pineapple slices to top the sandwiches later.

Cover the slow cooker and turn on high heat for two hours then reduce to low heat for another 4 hours. If you do not have a programmable slow cooker or are not home to adjust the heat, set the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.

Carefully remove the lid after 6-8 hours and remove the pork chunks. They should fall apart and shred easily with a fork. Stir 3 Tbsp of flour into a half cup of water then whisk into the juices left in the slow cooker. Set the heat to high, put the lid on and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Stir once half way through.

The juices should have thickened after adding the flour and simmering. Return the shredded meat to the pot and stir into the teriyaki gravy. Serve 1 cup of meat and gravy over a toasted bun with a pineapple slice on top!

This meal wasn't too bad and we had A LOT of leftovers which was nice! Adding all the sauce back to shredded meat made it kind of runny... so if I could do it over again I wouldn't add all the sauce at once but instead just a little bit to each individual sandwich. We paired the sandwiches which chips and dip ;) Easy peasy!

Dan gave this meal 4 out of 5 stars... Hey I'll take it!

Mileage Monday

Stats for the week of February 2nd - February 8th... and we are into the month of February! YAY! Closer and closer to springtime! The weather was pretty decent last week and I feel kind of badly for not taking advantage of it. I didn't even take Remington for any walks during the weekend... I know I'm a bad bad dog mom. I have not been feeling badly just mainly lazy. Once my work week is over with I crash and haven't been doing a darn thing. And basically I can't describe it as anything other than wonderful!

Monday, February 2nd, 2015 - 13,201 total steps / 4.3 total miles / 243 calories

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 - 14,627 total steps / 4.7 total miles / 332  calories

Wednesday, February 4th, 2015 - 14,830 total steps / 4.8 total miles / 252 calories

Thursday, February 5th, 2015 - 7,221 total steps / 2.3 total miles / 120 calories

Friday, February 6th, 2015 - 9,834 total steps / 3.2 total miles / 222 calories

Saturday, February 7th, 2015 - 1,261 total steps / .4 total miles / 5 calories

Sunday, February 8th, 2015 - 823 total steps / .2 total miles / 2 calories

Totals for the week : 61,797 total steps / 19.9 total miles / 1,176 calories

The Best Six Years

Today Dan and I are celebrating one of the greatest blessings that has ever entered into our lives. You probably won't have too much trouble guessing what that is... of course... our sweet as sugar Remi Bear! Oh how I love love love that doodle!

Celebrating Remington's 6th Birthday is very special, but also a little shocking. I have found myself spending moments recently just soaking in what an incredible dog he has become and how blessed Dan and myself are to call him our own. But also this birthday with him makes me realize that half of his life is gone and at best we probably only have six more years left to enjoy him. That is a hard pill to swallow and honestly hurts my heart... but let's not think about that.

Instead, let's celebrate what a wonderful life Remington has lived so far and also the wonderful life he has left to live. He has not only changed Dan and I lives and given us so much joy, but every week during his therapy dog visits he brings joy to those who meet him. He has being a big brother to look forward to, as well as teaching this new baby what dogs are all about. I just can't wait to see what legacy he leaves because he is just that special :)

I wish more than anything that Remington could understand how proud we are of him and the amount of love we hold in our hearts for him. And even though things may change a little along the way as the years go by, what will never change is how much he means to us.

Happy Birthday Big Boy! 

We love you to the moon and back a million times over!

Mileage Monday

Stats for the week of January 26th - February 1st... Last week was some week let me tell you. I worked almost 60 hours and several 13 hour days. I was exhausted and honestly kind of irritated with my job. I took this job because I thought that my schedule would be better and more flexible but sadly it is the complete opposite. Uhhhhgggg... plus being pregnant is not making things easier. Okay... now that you have heard all my complaints maybe you won't be surprised when I tell you I had zero time to run... I hardly could walk after getting off work some nights :( But... I got lots and lots of steps in!

Monday, January 26th, 2015 - 12,997 total steps / 4.0 total miles / 274 calories

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015 - 16,293 total steps / 5.2 total miles / 401 calories

Wednesday, January 28th, 2015 - 18,954 total steps / 5.5 total miles / 462 calories

Thursday, January 29th, 2015 - 9,639 total steps / 3.3 total miles / 198 calories

Friday, January 30th, 2015 - 8,752 total steps / 3.0 total miles / 124 calories

Saturday, January 31st, 2015 - 3,200 total steps / 1.2 total miles / 20 calories

Sunday, February 1st, 2015 - 3,555 total steps / 1.3 total miles / 43 calories

Totals for the week : 73,390 total steps / 23 total miles / 1,522 calories