Prayers for Dad

Hey everyone! Please keep Dad in your prayers today as he is expecting the last of the biopsy results to come in. The preliminary ones have been benign. Let's pray that the rest follow suit! Lots of love and prayers headed to Utah today!

Newest Ramsey

Congratulations to Chris, Carrie & their girls on the birth of their precious little boy. Christopher Cole Ramsey was born on Friday. He weighed 9lbs and was 21 inches long. :) Congrats guys!!

Jasmine

Hey everyone, in case you were not aware, Jasmine was in the ER last night. She has kidney stones. If you have ever had them, or a kidney infection of any sort, then you know this is INCREDIBLY painful. Please keep Jasmine in your prayers that she can recover quickly!!

Prayers Please!!

Mike has a job interview on Thursday at 1pm. This job would be a much needed financial blessing for our family. Please keep Mike in your prayers. We are just hoping that we can go where the Lord wants us and provide for our family.
A very special thank you to Kevin for being a consant source of support with Fedex career searching. :)
Love you all!!

Hello Out There!

Trying to make some improvements to the blog so hopefully we can get rolling with it again. I wanted to point out that the Christmas names are posted for this year. I know it's only October but it's never too early to start planning ya know? Early birds and worms and such.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful conference weekend! Stay tuned for updates and please feel free to add your own. :)

Tummy Tuck Tuesday

I know it's supposed to be Thursday but I couldn't wait ya'll. I REALLY couldn't wait. Get ready, I am about to change your life. You will only need a few things for this recipe...

One head of cauliflower
1 c. of flour
1 c. of buttermilk
2 tsp. garlic salt
Buffalo sauce
1 TBS. of butter, melted
A chizzle and some stone so you can erect a statue in my honor after you eat this and realize your life has been changed. (No, I didn't write this recipe but I am posting it so I get the statue.)

Vegetarian Buffalo "Chicken"

Combine flour, buttermilk and garlic salt
Wash your cauliflower and cut into bite sized pieces
Gently toss your cauliflower in the buttermilk mixture until it's well coated
Spread into a greased pan (I used a 9x13 glass dish)
Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes (just watch it and make sure it doesn't get too browned too fast)
Combine 1 c. of buffalo sauce (Mike Ramsey, your resident buffalo sauce expert suggests Buffalo Wild Wings sauce. Also, should you be sensitive to heat, you can use the Honey BBQ sauce or Parmesan Garlic, which are two of his BWW favorites.) and the melted butter.
Drizzle the sauce over the cauliflower and stir very gently to coat as well as you can
Bake for about 5-8 more minutes
Eat and enjoy

We served this with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing...just like traditional buffalo wings. It was such a fun way to get that wonderful flavor without the guilt! For real you guys, it was like Christmas up in here.

Prayers Please

Please remember to keep Amelia in your prayers for a speedy recovery after having her tonsils and adenoids out.
Also please keep prayers coming for Melanie who has been in the hospital with tummy issues.
It is always so hard seeing our children sick or in pain. Lots of prayers for these sweet little girls and their families.

Howdy Folks

I know...I'm BLOGGING! Miracles happen every day ya'll. It's the truth. Anyway, this time I'm actually blogging for a favor.
I have been asked to lead a discussion group this Tuesday at our enrichment night on emergency preparedness---specifically 72 hr. kits.
I'm actually REALLY excited about this (you can tell because I capped the word "really" and made it bold. That means business.)
I am excited about it for two reasons. The first is that it's something I have actually worked on so I don't feel all sheepish and embarrassed and guilty for not having one. The second reason is that mine desperately needs updating (I'm not perfect, don't judge me.) and this is just the thing to motivate me!
I know that some of you (read "all of you") are much better at the prepared thing than I am. I was wondering what tips and tricks you guys have learned about 72 hour kits that might be important to share with the sisters. I learned one neat thing while reading. Your snacks should be low in salt and animal products because those things take more water to digest. Does that mean I can just pack pepperidge farm cookies in my 72 hour kit?
So again, I would love to hear any tips that you have learned. How did you get your kits started? Did you do it all at once or build it slowly? Where do you keep it? How do you remember to rotate it? Any tidbits would be helpful.
Hope everyone is doing well.
:)

Kaylee - Horse show

Howdy All!!!! Kaylee is going to her first horse show this Sat. She will be riding in 10 different events and is working so hard to get ready. I will be posting some pictures and hopefully a video tomorrow of her practicing for the event. Also, Amelia is having surgery to have her adnoids and maybe her tonsils out in a couple of weeks. Let's all pray for her! Any other news people have please post it so we can keep track of whats happening in the family. Chris - It would be great to see pictures of your garden. You are the one in the family with a green thumb and your garden has been amazing this year!!!!!!

Trek Dance

Kaylee square dancing experience on trek!

We're back from Trek!!!!!!!!!!

Kaylee had a fabulous time on Trek and she didn't want to come home! It was such a wonderful experience for all of us and I wish all of you could of had this neat opportunity.

Happy Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone! This has been quite the summer so far. Kyle and Jasmine blessed little Melanie on July 1st, Chris and Carrie announced that a little BOY will be joining the family in Nov., a new little addition will be joining Mike and Jen's family in Feb., Cara graduated from college and Kaylee got her drivers license!!!!!!!!! There is never a dull moment with the Ramsey Clan!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Jenn and Kaylee today! We love you both and hope you have a fabulous birthday and year to come. Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She's Here!!

Welcome to the family, Melanie Ann Denise Ramsey!!

Happy Birthday Izabel!

Happy 2nd Birthday to sweet Izzy!!!

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

I love chili...like, LOOOOOOVE chili ya'll. I would eat chili every day. Well, maybe every other day. Whatever.

This recipe is a strange combination of chili recipes. It's not my all time favorite for tastes, BUT it is really good and really fast. It probably takes twenty minutes start to finish. It's great if you need to throw something together in a pinch. If you have all day, I have a truly to-die-for recipe that you must make.

Okay, so this is my work-in-progress Quick Chili:

1/2 a yellow squash
1/2 a zucchini
1 small red bell pepper
1 c. chopped yellow onion (less or more depending on how much you like onion)

**start by swishing a little olive oil around the bottom of your large saucepan (I am a one pan woman. Probably goes hand in hand with being the dishwasher.) then add your veggies and saute for a few minutes over medium-high heat.

**then add in your seasoning:
1 TBS. chili powder
1 tsp. oregano (optional)
1 tsp. paprika (optional...well, sort of. I don't make any Mexican food without paprika. I have a food crush on paprika. Yes, Mike knows. He has a food crush on habenero sauce so we have a mutual understanding.)
salt to taste
1 tsp. cumin

**stir that around and then it saute for another minute or two

** pour in 2 cans of chicken broth

** stir in:
2 diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn (more, depending on how corny you are. Get it? Corny...because the corn...never mind.) OR you could use a can of corn OR you could use fresh corn from leftover corn on the cob
3 cups of cooked, shredded chicken (you can omit this and add a can of kidney beans for a vegetarian version)
about 1/2 c. of  fresh, chopped cilantro

**let everything simmer for about 6-10 minutes

That's it!! Told you it was fast!

Happy Birthday Brayden!!!

Hard to believe, but Mr. Brayden is turning 4 today!
Happy Birthday Brayden!! We love you!!!

Prayer Requests

Hey everyone! Hope that everyone is enjoying this lovely Sabbath day. Just a few prayer requests to put out there.
Jasmine is nearing the end of her pregnancy. I know she is uncomfortable and getting anxious over the arrival of their sweet little girl. Please keep Jasmine and Kyle in your prayers for a smooth delivery and healthy baby girl.
Carrie is finishing out her first trimester and still feeling the effects of morning sickness...or, as I like to call it, "progesterone poisoning". Please pray for Carrie. It's hard to take care of a family when you feel like you are sea sick for 4 months.
Mike has been searching for new job opportunities. He has applied for several that he would really love to have and which would be blessings for our family with better hours and benefits (and pay of course). Please pray for Mike that the right job will open up for him.
Caeden has his first school play this week and is worried about "stage fright". Please keep Caeden in your prayers.

Anyone else need some extra family prayers this week?

Tummy Tuck Thursday...a day early

I have discovered that the secret to eating healthy is to drown enough seasoning on stuff so that it no longer tastes like healthy food. For example, you can make this fantastic Asian inspired dressing, pour it on cabbage and it tastes like crunchy Asian dressing...instead of cabbage! It's like magic.
You may have noticed that a lot of my Tummy Tuck Thursday recipes have been Asian or Mexican in nature. Now you understand why. Soy sauce and chili powder are our friends. We have them over for dinner almost every night.
This recipe is fabulous and easy and inexpensive...three of my favorite things. You can pull it together fast and it's super scrumptious.

Asian Chicken Salad
for the dressing combine:
1/2 c. seasoned rice vinegar
3 TBS. creamy unsalted peanut butter (I use regular creamy pb)
2 TBS. canola oil
2 tsp. sesame oil (I leave this out because it's a little spicy)
2 TBS. sugar
2 tsp. fresh grated gingerroot (grating ginger is a pain, in my humble opinion, so I used about 1 tsp. dried ginger)
2 garlic cloves, pressed (pressing garlic? also a pain. I use 2 tsp. of chopped garlic)
1/4 tsp. black pepper (I leave this out)
3 TBS. soy sauce

for the salad combine:
3 cups shredded Napa cabbage (Do not freak out if there are black dots on it...Carrie says it's normal. If you die from black dotted Napa cabbage, please haunt Carrie, not me.)
3 cups shredded romaine lettuce
3 cups shredded red cabbage
4 green onions, thinly sliced
I also add some chopped cuccumber, but it's totally up to you
3 medium navel oranges, segmented (I use mandarin oranges, because they come in a can.)
18oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked

**The recipe I have suggests cooking your chicken in a pan, but I boiled mine and then shredded it.

Once your chicken is cooked, toss it with 1/4 c. of the dressing
Toss together your cabbages, onions, cuccumber and oranges, then coat with remaining dressing and toss in the chicken
Sprinkle with some crunchy won ton strips if you want. You can buy them pre-packaged in the salad section or you can make your own by cutting wonton wrappers and baking them at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes (sprinkle with cooking spray first).

See? Super easy. Super delicious. Super healthy. Super cheap. The cabbages will easily make 3 bathces of salad. Enjoy!!!
Toss your cabbages and onion

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Chris!!!!!!

We all hope you have a wonderful birthday Chris! We Love You!!!!!

Easter Basket Surprise!

Congratulations Chris, Carrie & Family! We are super excited for you and can't wait to meet the newest member of the family!!

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

As a forenote, I will tell you that this is probably not a make-for-random-weeknight-dinner recipe. It's more of a special occasion meal. Or a side dish that you take to a cook-out when you want to impress everyone with your delicious-yet-healthy culinary skills. OR, you could make it while you are alone and just eat the entire thing by yourself. That is fine too.

Light Steakhouse Mac & Cheese

1. Grease and set aside a 2qt casserole dish with 1 tsp. olive oil
2. Boil some water and cook about 1/2 box (8 oz.) of wheat pasta. If you want to walk on the wild side, use regular pasta. Cook for about 6 minutes or until the pasta is just barely tender. Drain the pasta and save 1 cup of the liquid.
3. Warm up a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook 3 strips of bacon. See, I told you this recipe was good. Bacon makes everything better. Mmmmm bacon. But I digress...cook your bacon in your saucepan and reserve some drippings (about 2 TBS.) in the pan.
4. Remove and crumble up your bacon. Then add 1 container (I think it's roughly 10 oz.) of fresh mushrooms. I chopped mine into small pieces. To be honest, the texture of mushrooms is kind of gross to me. Foods I don't love are more tolerable when chopped into little pieces. It's true.
5. Saute your mushrooms for about 7 minutes until they are nice and brown and then add in 2 cloves of chopped garlic, some pepper to taste (I also threw in a handful of chopped green onion) and 10 oz. of baby spinach. I halved this because it seemed like a ridiculous amount of spinach. Cooked spinach is sort of a childhood nemesis. Another texture thing. You people without texture issues confuse me. Anyway, you can use all the spinach or half it like I did. It doesn't make you weird if you like a lot of spinach...well maybe a little.
6. Once your spinach is all nice and wilted, combine your spinach mixture and your pasta in a big bowl.
7. In a little bowl combine 1/4 c. of plain greek yogurt and 4oz. crumbled blue cheese. Then add this to the pasta and spinach and mix it all around. Stir in about 1/2c. of your liquid or more if the pasta is really dry. Dump all this into your casserole dish. Go ahead and curse me because I somehow convinced you to make a mac & cheese without cheddar in it.
8. In a bowl combine 1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs (I used regular panko crumbs because the grocery store didn't have wheat ones. I have no idea what this does to the "light" nature of this meal. It might negate the whole thing, but it's dang good just the same.), 2 TBS. chopped fresh parsley and your crumbled bacon. Drizzle with three tsp. of olive oil and mix it all together.
9. Sprinkle your bread crumb mixture over the top of your macaroni and cheese and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly.
10. Go ahead and love me again because it's the best mac & cheese you've ever had. Okay, okay, so a little cheddar and some whipping cream wouldn't kill it, but it's still pretty darn good.

Construction is Messy

Sorry everyone. I know I am almost a month late taking down the Valentines Day layout. I had lofty dreams of doing a St. Patrick's Day one, but who was I kidding? So, I am working on a new spring layout with updated scripture and food storage stuff. Please be patient through the ugly stages of this particular haircut. Much love! <3 Jen

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

Sometimes I get really motivated to do Mike's whole healthy-eating-whatever. I think to myself, "this is awesome. I can TOTALLY do this. I feel great." Other times...well, I don't think that way. Sometimes I want a milkshake and a cheeseburger. That happens a lot actually.
MOST of the time, I am somewhere in the middle. That's the greatest thing about this snack. It's kind of in the middle of the health scale. It's got good stuff in it...with just the right amount of less-good-stuff. :)

Apple Rings:

1 apple cored and sliced into rings
Peanut Butter
Cooking Oats
Raisins or, if you are anything like me, you can substitute with chocolate chips

Spread your apple rings with PB and cover with oats and chocolate chips er, raisins. Enjoy!

Meaningful Monday

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was supposed to write a blog post twice a week...and then she ran into a few dwarfs, a fairy and a cute, but very busy big-bad-wolf, and that kept her pretty busy.

I honestly have no idea what to write about for Meaningful Monday. My sleep-deprived brain is fried. Soooo, on that note, does anyone have any thoughts?

As a side note, please keep Kevin & Cara and Kyle & Jasmine in your prayers as they settle into their new place. Also, Mike has an interview with Fedex tomorrow, so he might appreciate those prayers as well. :)

Hope everyone is doing well. Have a wonderful week!!!

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

I want you to meet my new best friend. We only met recently, but I can already tell you that this is going to be a very important relationship in my life. Say, "hello", to my new friend, Cookie Butter.

I know what you're thinking...how did we sleep through the Second Coming? Because cookies.and butter.together. Yep, we're all in Heaven! Grandma actually spotted it on the shelf while we were shopping for honey, and are we so glad that she did!

Suggested uses:
Smoothies, smearing on fruit, crackers or toast, eat it plain with a spoon (Grandma and I tested this method...it's a winner), lick it straight out of the jar.

Photo Friday

Ya know, I have really been meaning to get into the toothpaste and smear it all over the place. I'm sure glad that mom decided to feed Tyler so I had time to do this. How very interesting this stuff is.

Meaningful Monday

For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me," D& C 25:12

Congratulations Kaylee for making it into "The Chanters". We are very proud of you and know that you are doing a wonderful thing by sharing your talents.

Photo Friday

Gavin's cake for the Blue & Gold Banquet. He made it himself and it was actually quite delicious. And didn't he just do a marvelous job of decorating it? I am not biased in the least.

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

Mike's Breakfast Recipe:

I'm going to go ahead right now and tell you that I don't really like this recipe. I like my breakfast swimming in a nice gooey combination of butter and syrup thank you very much. For those of you freaks people who prefer a healthier start to the morning, this is a cheap, quick, nutritious start to the morning:

Two fried eggs
Two small corn tortillas
1/2 c. salsa

Stick the eggs on your tortillas and top with salsa

Jen's Breakfast Recipe:

Crepes, Pancakes, Cinnamon Rolls, Waffles, Pie with Ice Cream...if these things are not available or convenient,combine peanut butter cheerios with chocolate cheerios and top with milk.

Tummy Tuck Thursday

Stay focused on eating green in every meal!

Always incorporate a good high quality low glycemic index dark green vegetable
with each meal. I suggest things like spinach or romaine lettuce in your lunch
time salads. Try eating broccoli, asparagus, or steamed spinach as your vegetable
at dinner time. All of these dark green vegetables supply your body with great
vitamins and nutrients and are also great sources of fiber as well as naturally low
on the glycemic index scale.

Bottom line is they will keep your blood sugar levels from spiking after
eating. So think dark green at meal time, and challenge yourself to keep it as
part of each and every eating event.

Exercise: Let's have some fun! This may not be as good as going to the gym, or resisting that bowl of ice cream you are wanting to eat, but it is a fun way to burn off a few calories, so LET"S LAUGH. Laughter is known to remedy for many things, and while it is not going to make a huge difference in your immediate waist line, It will lift spirits and relieve stress, and at the same time you will burn enough calories in 10 to 15 minutes of laughing as a medium piece of chocolate. So have your cake and eat it to.(just laugh while your having it)

Great News!

Kevin got the job he was interviewing for! Looks like they will be heading to Wisconsin! MMMMMM...cheese!
Congratulations Kevin & family!! :)

Prayer Request

Hey everyone! Kevin has a final interview for a new position with Fedex. It is today at 1pm (EST). Please take a few minutes to pray for Kevin and his family, that the interview will go well. Hope everyone is having a great week so far. Love to you all!!

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

So since we are on the topic of desserts (I'm not going to lie...I really love that subject), I thought I'd share a couple yummy sweet treats for this week's Tummy Tuck Recipe.
Banana Almond Smoothie-
This smoothie is good...really good...make-a-triple-batch-and-sit-on-the-couch-watching-american-idol good. The good news, it's actually good for you too. I know, but stranger things have happened! I like to make this smoothie for breakfast, a snack mid-day, or for a treat before bedtime...so, basically anytime.
Super easy, super delicious and healthy too? Yes please!
Ingredients:
1 banana sliced and frozen
1 c. almond milk-or more depending on how thick you like your smoothie (this is NOT the same as soy milk so please don't use soy milk and then fuss at me for your smoothie not tasting yummy)
1 spoonfull of almond butter (don't panic when you buy the almond butter. it is a little pricey-about $6.29 a jar...but each smoothie only uses 1 spoonfull, so it will last you a while.)
1-2 spoonfulls of ground flax seed (sounds gross, it isn't. it's actually nice and nutty tasting, packed with fiber and a good source of omegas, which is excellent for those of us who don't like fish)
Drizzle of honey
I also add a little bit of crushed ice.
A straw---Did you know that smoothies taste better with a straw? It's a proven fact.
Stick it all in your blender and go...oh, but don't put the straw in the blender. That's disgusting.
Enjoy!!

For a second, even EASIER treat, freeze your banana slices and mix with a scoop of nutella in a food processor. The result is almost like banana and nutella frozen yogurt. Good luck not licking the food processor clean.

See Below Post

Tummy Tuck Thursday

Dessert!

In any type of weight maintenance program, this is a Very Bad Word! Lets face it though, for some people and I would never name names, asking to give up desserts would be like asking me to right arm and my left leg. In other words that ain't going to happen. So for our Tummy tuck Thursday, I wanted to address dessert.

when you eat dessert, it is important to portion your sizes. and watch the timing. First portions, The easiest way to control your portions is to choose the correct size plate or bowl. So lets face it, if you pick a bowl like the big white one on the left you are going to fill it up, and you are going to over eat your dessert. If you choose the smaller bowl, you may fill it up, but your portion is going to be closer to what it needs to be.

What is your goal? are you trying to loose weight, you just maintain. If you are trying to maintain, you can have a little larger portion, then if you were trying to loose weight. If portion control is difficult for you and you are trying to loose weight, it is best to avoid dessert all together for 1 week. this proves to you that you can do it and resets your mind into thinking that it has to have that sugar to survive.

Next is timing! Never indulge in desert first thing in the morning. stick to your well balanced breakfast. eating high starch foods early in the morning before your body has had time to really get going, has been linked to type 2 diabetes. This is caused by your body not being ready to breakdown those high levels of starch and sugar. So when should you eat dessert. Take the advice of Dad and if you are out to eat, get your dessert first. In between 4 and 5 in the afternoon is the best time to eat these deserts. I t gives your body the jolt of serotonin, that it is looking for at mid day, and gives your body the time it needs before going into it's nightly slow down. The rule is give your body no less then 3 to 4 hours to digest before going to bed.

Exercise: If you want more exercise let me know, I am trying to keep them simple and would like to know if they are working for you guys.

Anniversary!!!!!!

Happy 10th anniversary Mike and Jenn!!!!!!!
The next 10 years are going to be just
as wonderful and maybe even better.
We love you guys!!!!!

Baby

I can't believe how much little Melanie has grown. She is getting soooooo big!!!!!!!!!!!

Tummy Tuck Thursday: by Mike Ramsey

Since my Wife feels it necessary to point out my faults, i guess I will follow through with my tummy tuck thursdays with out delay.

Slowing down as the sun goes down:

Typically, when a person takes a look at the day and see how much they have eaten, here is what they would see. Breakfast, if anything, A small quick meal. ( bowl of cereal, a couple eggs, or a breakfast drink.) Then for lunch, you might have a quick meal out or if you are working, you would have a quick sandwich you brought from home. then for Dinner you will have large portions of heavy food. ( Beef, Chicken, Pasta, and other foods that are hard to digest.)

As your body gets into a routine of waking up and going to sleep around the same times, your bodies memory begins to adjust to when it needs to start firing up and when it starts to cool down. During that cool down time, which will typically begins at about 7 o'clock at night, you body starts to burn less calories and begins a short hybernation period. knowing this, you could make a huge differenc in your life by trying to reverse that order.

Eat you larger meal in the morning, and as the day goes on, eat smaller portions and healthier foods. this change will help curb your appetite, but will help you burn more calories throughout the day and have less calories turning into "undesireables" as we sleep.

This Weeks Exercise:

Abdominal Twists: Stand with Hands on your head, or as close as you can get. Keep your feet shoulder width apart. Twist using only your upper body. (keep feet and hips still) Twist to the right and as soon as you are at your furthest point, hold for five seconds and then dip your fourhead towards right hip slowly until you feel the pull in your abs, and hold for 5 seconds. Repeat to the left. Do 20 to each side every day and begin to see results.

Photo Friday

Literally falling into bed...

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

Where is Tummy Tuck Thursday? Is my husband slacking on the job...geesh, who would do that? Lamesauce!
What do you mean I haven't posted in a month? That's ridiculous...

Here is this week's Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe. At least SOMEONE is living up to their responsibilities. For reals though, I would have blogged on Meaningful Monday but I was too busy calling 911 to get my kids out of the car that I locked them in with the keys. Yeah, that happened.

So, for your dining pleasure, I present to you Totally Thai Lettuce Cups. Pros: inexpensive, easy, delicious Cons: you might never want to eat anything else again. you've been warned.
**this recipe feeds two adults comfortably, you can increase as needed
Ingredients:
6 leaves romaine or green leaf lettuce (I use romaine)
6oz. boneless skinless chicken breast
1 large cucumber peeled and chopped
4 green onions chopped
4 TBS. shredded carrot (about 1 large carrot)
3 TBS. thai peanut dressing or sauce
4 TBS. seasoned rice vinegar
2 TBS. chopped cilantro leaves
1/4 tsp garlic powder (I use 1 tsp. fresh chopped garlic)
red pepper flakes (I leave these out...have I mentioned that spicy food is my arch nemesis?)
optional garnish: lime wedges, sesame seeds, peanuts (I never use these things. Garnishes are for rich people.)

Directions:
In a bowl combine cucumber, green onion, carrot, cilantro, red pepper flakes and vinegar--mix well and keep in the fridge until ready to use
Chop up your chicken (I try to make it super small) and cook with garlic powder in a pan at medium high heat until cooked
Toss chicken with peanut sauce
To assemble just layer your veggie mix and your chicken in the lettuce cup

**if you need more of a filler, you can add some jasmine rice, though it will add calories of course
Add your garnish and you are good to go. Chomp! Chomp!

Tummy Tuck Thursday Recipe

We decided that it might be fun to share some of the new healthy recipes we've been enjoying. I have never been a fan of cooking "healthy" food. It's so...healthy. I prefer my cooking to be done in true southern fashion with lots of the three essentials: lard, butter and cream (and any variation thereof). Need less to say, the idea of cooking grown-up food was not appealing. After trying some of these recipes, however, I am converted. Who knew that something that isn't drenched in butter and sugar could taste so good?

So for our Tummy Tuck Thursday Feature: Healthy Taco Salad
Ingredients:
2 ears of corn, silk and husk removed (i used one can of drained corn)
3 corn tortillas cut into wedges
3/4 c. nonfat plain yogurt (i used a single serving container of the dannon greek yogurt...no measuring=less mess. YIPEE!)
2 limes
1/3 fresh cilantro
1 1/2 TBS. finely chopped and seeded jalapeno pepper (i left this out because i have a hard time with spicy food)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 lb ground turkey (it's not as nasty as i thought it would be when loaded with seasoning)
1 tsp chili powder (i felt like this was not enough flavor so i used the same seasoning i do for tacos--1 TBS. chili powder, 1 tsp. onion powder, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp. cumin, 1tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. paprika)
1 tsp. ground cumin (leave this out if you do the taco seasoning)
1/2 lb. iceburg lettuce torn into pieces (about 3 cups)
1 c. canned black beans rinsed and drained (i used the whole can)
2 plum tomatoes cut into wedges
1/2 red onion cut into wedges (i diced mine and cooked it with the meat because i don't like raw onion)
1 small ripe mango- seeded, peeled, choped into chunks (we left this out because mangos are not in season)

Directions:
1. cook your corn and remove kernels (unless you use a can of course)
2. preheat oven to 350- bake on a baking sheet until crisp (about ten minutes)-set aside
3. make dressing by whisking together yogurt, juice from 1 lime, cilantro, jalapeno and salt ** mike felt the dressing was too limey, i liked it so use the lime juice to taste.
4. brown your turkey meat (and onion if you like) over medium heat until cooked fully---add seasoning and juice from remaining lime
5. transfer meat to a large serving bowl---add lettuce, beans, tomatoes, onion, mango and corn and tortillas. toss to combine and drizzle with dressing...serve immediately.
you will be surprised how non-rabbit-food-like it tastes. :)

Tummy Tuck Thursday

Here comes the weekly tip:

Feed your Body Early!

We have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but why? When you are able to eat within 30 minutes to a hour of getting up, it supplies your body with the necessay energy to get going. This accomplishes two different things. First, your metabloism gets a jump- start that is needed to burn more calories throughout the day. Second, it puts a stop to the heavier cravings that would normally come before lunch (a simple snack will be sufficient to get you through to lunch). So Feed Your Body Early. This is especially important if you implement any type of early morning exercise.

What to eat: Eggs are a great sorce of protein. What I have been doing is taking the healthy meal left overs from the night before and putting them in to a 3 egg omelett the next morning. Veggie omeletts are fantastic. I do remove one of the yolks from the eggs, to reduce calories.

What not to eat: This doesn't mean that as soon as your wife leaves for a doctors appointment, you make a batch of chochlate chip cookies and you sit down to a big bowl of cookie dough and a tall glass of milk (at least it was skim milk). I don't know who would ever do this!

Exercise: Wall push ups. These are safer then regular push ups. place your hands on the wall at shoulder height with your feet directly beneth you. The farther your feet are from the wall, the more difficult your pushups will be. Do as many reps as you feel you can safely do.

Love you all!
Mike

Tummy Tuck Thursday: by Mike Ramsey

As some of you know I Love to Eat and I always have. As life has gotten hectic and the IDEA of walking up the stairs almost gives me a heart attack and I end up Yelling up the stairs and saying " Hey Gavin, throw me my shoes" or "Hey Caeden, stop what you are doing and come down here so you can take this up to mommy" So I decided I had had enough and wanted to start felling better. At my last birthday in august I weighed 266 lbs. I didn't sleep well, and I snored all the time. I actually slept in a different room then Jen, so that I wouldn't wake her up.

Today, I weigh about 212 lbs, and sleep better and rarely snore. I run up the stairs and ask a lot less of my kids, because I feel better doing it my self. And recently Jen has joined my quest and we have been experimenting with healthier meals and found some very good recipies that we can share with those who are interested. I began my journey being very hard on myself not eating any meat, going to the gym 5 days a week at 5 in the morning, and even protein shakes for 5 meals a day and nothing else. In most situations this is not the best way to go, but for me it had to be all or nothing, and I chose all.

I use this story as a lead in to my Tummy Tuck Thursdays. For anyone who is interested I Am going to post a couple tips for eating and/or exercises as part of our blog. I only do this because I feel it is important and I see the changes that it has had in my life. I in know way want anyone to be offended by this, I just want to offer support in something that I know and something I feel stongly about. Any comments and discussions are welcome.

My first tip is: Eat 5 to 6 times a day.

This does not mean to go to the store and by a 12 pack of burritos and eat two burritos every 3 hours throughout your day. Simple snacking between your 3 main meals, on things like fresh veggies or protein bars. Your breakfast should be a good size and a good variety. while your luch and dinner can be anything you would like, but portioned well. Before each main meal drink a full glass of water.

By eating more often and the right types of food, you are telling your body that there is never a need to store the excess energy (other wise known as Fat)It will also keep you energy levels up avoiding those afternoon yawns keeping you from needing to have that rush of caffine that I always felt like I needed.

Exercise of the week: stetching - stretch when ever you can, your arms, legs, back, anything. I stretch my calfs when going up the stairs, stretch my arms and shoulders when in the door way. Anything is better than nothing. Make notes as you go through the day as to what you have eaten and what you have stretched. then post your results!

Sorry for the long post, they won't be this in depth from now, I just wanted everyone to know why I was doing this.

Mike

Wonderful Wednesday

Where is Meaningful Monday, you ask? Hey, sometimes I make up new days. I get to do that. Don't judge me.
This is somewhat of a combination of Meaningful Monday and Photo Friday. Happy Wednesday everyone!!

How stinking cute is she? Jasmine and Kyle are now half way through the pregnancy, which means we will hopefully find out what they are having sometime soon. Time for the family poll. Is it a boy or a girl? Will this baby even things out or continue to tilt the boys?

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!

We had a great New Years Eve. We drove to Salt Lake and stopped on the way to go through the light display in Willard. I was really fun. Then we walked around Temple Square to see all the lights and went through the visitors center. They had a film called "Joy to the World" that we watched and it was really neat. We also drove past the Bountiful Temple so Kaylee could see it up close. It is soooooooooooooooooooo beautiful!!!! On the way home, we stopped and fed the horses. We got home about 11:15 p.m. Dad went to bed, I was on the computer and Kaylee was in her room trying to stay awake for the big BALLDROP!!! Dad fell asleep, Kaylee also passed out and I was on the computer when I looked at the clock and it said 11:59. I turned the T.V. on just after the ball dropped and everyone was kissing eachother. I looked around and saw that I was the only one here awake and just thought, I guess we are just not the partying type!!!!! Then I turned off the computer and went to bed. The 3 of us are just loads of fun.
Happy New Year Everyone and WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Year! Sadly, we spent the last week sick and pathetic. We had a quiet New Year's Eve, ringing it in about two hours early and toasting with saltines and gatorade. It was nice just the same. :)
Did anyone do anything fun to celebrate the New Year?