The challenge: clear a counter

When you walk into your kitchen, what is the first thing that catches your eye?  What are things that your husband sees as he is walking in the door after a long day at work?  When you have guests, what do they see first?

I know that the counters can be a quick catch for everything that leads to clutter especially in a large family.  But even if you have all the dishes done, the counters cleared of papers, and the food put away, our counters can still be cluttered with decorations and appliances that rarely get used.

Why make the change:

As with everything in life the more simplified we can make it, the more peaceful and calmer we will be.  If we are constantly fumbling for something, or trying to find counter space for this item.  If we have to move one mess just to make room for another mess.  We are just adding chaos to our life.  The goal of simple lifestyle challenge is exactly what it says to SIMPLIFY OUR LIFESTYLES.

How to make the change:

How do you go about de-cluttering and organizing your kitchen counters?  First clean up your kitchen as you normally would, putting away all items that are not normal left out.  Then leave the room and walk back into the kitchen, pretending you are viewing it through the eyes of another person.  What types of areas are your eyes drawn to?  Is it the stack of papers and notes that you leave out because you need them everyday?  Or is it the many appliances that you leave out because you use them a few times per week?  Is it the sink with its messy dish rag and bottle of soap?  You need to identify areas that need de-cluttering and fix them.

Start with paperwork.  You need to identify what the paperwork is and where it came from and then where it is supposed to go.  Sort through your mail by the trash can and immediately throw away junk mail.  Open the bills and place them in an area that you pay your bills at.  Put the magazines and newspapers in the area that you read them at.  After you have read the magazine or newspaper throw it away.  If you have an article or recipe that you want to save from the publication then cut it out and place it in your household binder or in your recipe box.  If it is paperwork for your husband place it in an area just for that.  I use my wall clipboards for that purpose.

If your counter-tops are covered in appliances, you need to reevaluate which ones you actually “need” out everyday and which ones you can put away because it takes probably 10 seconds to get it out again.

Keep your counter-tops cleared.  It is more pleasing to the eye and makes a nicer workplace for you to be in.  Clearing the clutter from the kitchen is not a once and forever job, it is something that needs to be evaluated every few months.  Clutter creeps up on us and we need to keep our eye on it so that it doesn’t take over.  Clutter makes our daily work harder to do because we have to fumble around it.  You need to train yourself to constantly evaluate the clutter factor in the area where you are the most. And for most of us ladies it is the kitchen.  Keep it clutter free.  You just might be motivated to de-clutter other areas of “chaos” in your home.

Beef fried rice

This has become something that I make on a regular basis.  Especially while I am trying to lose a few pounds.  I don’t always make it with the beef but I didn’t think many people would just view the vegetables and rice dish that I enjoy eating for my dinner during my weight loss:)

Rice is a wonderful whole food to eat.  Make sure to not buy the white rice, keep it brown.  You want it to be a more natural food.  It fills you up and is good for digestion and tastes great too.

For most of my dinners, I make a cup of rice and add some frozen mixed vegetables and let it simmer.  To top it I sprinkle on some low sodium soy sauce and sesame seed oil.  Top with some green onions and you have a great tasting meal that will fill you up.  Your body will digest it quickly so don’t worry that you eat a large bowl to fix your cravings.  Those will go away eventually.

On the other hand, my husband doesn’t really like to eat my “healthy” lower calorie meals and likes some beef.  So I compromise and came up with this recipe.  I can enjoy the rice and vegetables and he can have the beef to fulfill his “man” need of meat.

For the beef I take whatever size roast I have. I usually buy a rump roast at the meat store and cook it all day in the crockpot.  When it is done it makes the most tender meat.  I then cut this into strips and will put in the freezer until I need them for recipes.  Very simple, no need for spices or tenderizing, the crockpot will do the work.

I then take my 2-3 pounds of beef and saute it with 2 Tablespoons of minced garlic.  1/2 of chopped green pepper, 2 T beef bouillon, 1/4 cup soy sauce, and few dashes of sesame seed oil.  Saute over medium heat.  If you want more flavor add more of the soy sauce or sesame seed oil.  However you like it.

In my wok, or a chicken fryer pan whatever you have in your home.  We just got the wok as a Christmas gift so we use that, but we did it for years in  a chicken fryer pan.  Add some vegetables.  We like frozen mixed vegetables, can of bean sprouts, and water chestnuts.  We cook that until it is thoroughly heated.  Add a few dashes of soy sauce and sesame seed oil.

When it is all heated we cook some eggs.  Push your vegetables around the sides of the pan and crack a few eggs in the center.  We were making enough for our large family so we did 6 eggs.  But for the average person figure 2 eggs per person.

We cook up a separate pot of brown rice.  Measure however much you will need per person.  Figure a cup of uncooked rice per person.

I keep it all separate and then build it with rice, veges, and beef.  Top with green onions and add some more soy sauce and sesame seed oil for taste.

I have found I really like to add sweet chili oil as a condiment to my rice.  It gives it a nice spicy taste and is yummy.  Spicy foods are good for the metabolism.  Try it.

The challenge: to exercise

Oops, probably not the one you wanted to hear, I know been there before.  Always had an excuse, too busy, pregnant, just had a baby, no sleep, no time for anything.  But I had time to feel miserable, I had time to lay in bed for hours because my back hurt, I had time to research why my body felt different, time to go to the doctors for medication to fix things.  But I couldn’t find the time for preventative maintenance.

Why make the change:

When I was young I felt great could mainly eat whatever I wanted and not really worry about it, well then I got older.  I had 10 babies and not much time in between to THINK about losing weight, it was all about survival.  Then I just got tired.  Tired of feeling tired, tired of feeling fat, tired of feeling miserable.

I needed a change.  Sure I could find every “miracle” cure to treat my ailments.  “Eat pineapple for this, take this vitamin supplement for that. ”  But none were going to get to the real issue.  The real issue was that I was overweight.  My body could not function properly because it was doing enough “overtime” work keeping my body going.  I decided to change.

We all know or should know that we can’t just expect our bodies to work properly if we don’t exercise.  Even if we think we are active enough, if we have “jiggle” on our body more than likely we need to exercise.  You can look at all the statistics on heart disease, arthritis, every ailment that starts to affect a person especially around 40 years of age.  I am sure most of us knows someone that is taking numerous amount of medication because of health reasons.  I am sure with some proper diet and exercise most all of those pills can be gone.

We need to be doing preventative maintenance on ourselves.  The time is minimal when compared to the shortening of our lifespan and the amount of time spent trying to control our health conditions.  Did I mention the amount of money you will save by taking care of yourself now???

How to make the change:

I didn’t change my eating habits at all in the beginning of my weight loss journey.  But I did change the amount of activity that I did.  I decided to exercise almost everyday.  I had babies and I had lots of little ones at that time.  5 under 5 to be exact!   But I chose to do it, I chose to exercise every week for myself.  I started out by walking.  I didn’t go on long walks away from my children, I did it outside around my yard.  Thank goodness we don’t have any neighbors or they probably would be wondering what I was doing.

I did that for a few months and then my husband bought me an elliptical.  My absolutely favorite thing, still after 3 years!  I would suggest looking for a used piece of equipment, as most people buy them in hopes of using them and then don’t:)  look on Craigslist for one in your area.

If you still aren’t able to get outside or purchase equipment, be creative in your venture to exercise.  I actually started dancing to my children’s Wiggles videos and got a great workout for the half hour it was on.  Try it, it was exhausting—those men are troopers:)

Get your children involved doing some of the following:

• sit ups
• push ups
• leg lifts
• squats
• march around the house, doing high knee lifts
• stretch—your arms, legs, back, and neck muscles

There are numerous FREE things you can do to exercise.  If you really need help, look up some on youtube or rent a video from the library–Denise Austin is my favorite.

Again, this is a challenge, try it for a week, I would recommend 2.  See how you feel at the end of those weeks.  Do you have more energy?  Have you lost some weight?  How about your mood?  Does it make you want to continue?  I pray it does.  You will never regret exercising.

This is one of those recipes that you aren’t sure really sounds that good, until you try it.  I happened to look on the back of my stuffing box and it had this recipes.  We tweaked it a bit and had good results.  It is basically thanksgiving dinner in a shell!!

You will need the following:

• 1 pkg jumbo shells
• 1 pkg stuffing mix
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• 1 can of corn
• 1 lb of chicken cooked and cut up
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• chicken broth–some use canned, I just make mine with chicken bouillon and water about 2 cups worth of water and 2 T of bouillon

Cook the jumbo shells according to package directions, drain and let sit in cold water.

In large bowl, place your stuffing mix and 1 1/2 cups of hot water, let sit for a moment to absorb and then you will be adding your chicken and corn to this.  For your chicken, I like to cook all my chicken breast when I purchase it and then grind it up in my food processor and put in 1 lb plastic containers for freezing.  Mix it all together.  You can add whatever vegetables you have on hand, we just enjoy corn.

Next you stuff those shells with the mixture.  Yes the tedious task of stuffing shells.  Our family does this recipe times 2 so it can take awhile, I be sure and have the younger girls join in the fun:)

Place them in a baking dish and next you will be making your gravy.  In a small saucepan put your cream of chicken soup and add your chicken broth.  Make it with 2 cups of water and bouillon or buy canned.  Whisk this together.  I would suggest you make double if you are going to be serving with mashed potatoes like we did and then it has more gravy.  Just pour this mixture over top of the shells.  But if you made double then save the second half for the topping of potatoes.  Cover with foil and bake 350 for 30 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes.  A yummy, different sort of dinner.