As a busy mommy, wife, and beauty lover, finding multipurpose items are my THING. Baby wipes doubling as makeup removers, body washes that can be used for shampoo, and foods that fit in my beauty regimen. Things that make me smile! I’m sure many of you can relate so I thought I put together a list and uses of 5 things you probably have in your kitchen RIGHT NOW that can be used to keep you looking fabulous…right in between cooking dinner ;).
Changing some things ’round here Queens! Starting with this! Instead of boring you guys with my weekly meal plans…which I’m sure you all LOVED (note my sarcasm there) I decided to take on a different approach with my Let’s Eat This Week series. I’m sure you get it bynow. MEAL PLANNING SAVES LIVES. Yes it’s that serious. If you’re a real queen you know this. Ever since I’ve started meal planning my budget loves me, my stomach loves me, my husband loves me, my kids love me, my sanity loves me. I’m telling you. If you’ve not hopped on the bandwagon do so now. Need some ideas? Look here and here.
Ok, since we’ve got the basics down, I decided that I will post a featured recipe from my meal plan each week to help my fellow Queens get inspired. One of the things I struggled with cooking for a family of 5 on a daily basis, somewhere in between my 9 – 5, raising said family, and living life, was food for me was just a means to survive. We ate HORRIBLY. See referenced posts for more on that. And that’s sad coming from me as I’m a foodie at heart. I love Love LOVE food.
My reason for creating this blog for was for real queens to feel empowered to do it ALL. With little time, little resources, or an abundance of both, we can accomplish all we want in life. Be it small or large. And right now, I want to eat. Glorious decadent food. Every night! So that’s what I do.And YOU can too!
So, please bear with me queens as I continue to find my way with this blog! I just want to thank all of you for the love! Every like, comment, follow, and view is important to me! I have so much in store for the future of this blog and I can’t wait to share it all with you!
Peace, Love, & Blessings.
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This Brown Queen
Decided on this name for my meal planning series. Here I hope to help other Queens eat good, healthy, and easy! Follow me on this journey to healthy fulfilling eating for my kingdom!
Sunday: BBQ Chicken, Velveta Shells with cheese (low fat), brown rice, broccoli with side salad
Monday: Spaghetti! Whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles, with your choice of pasta sause (I usually use whatever jumps out at me) with fresh chopped red and green peppers, Garlic bread with side salad.
Tuesday: Beef and Broccoli (my at home take out!) with fried brown rice with peas and carrots
Thursday: Comfort Food! Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and Corn on the cob with side salad.
Friday: Kid’s Choice. Make your own pizza from scratch. They. Are going to be. PUMPED!
Saturday: On the road, traveling to see princess dance show. So dinner will be grab and go!
Meal planning is coming along amazing. You really have no idea how much time AND money this saves! It also saves brain space. Brain space is something I need. My days are already so jam packed, to have one less thing to think about is a plus in my book! Once I’ve officially mastered regular daily dinner meals I’ll move on to breakfast, healthy creative snacks, and trying new recipes. I have Pinterest boards just itching to be put to use! But everyone knows how hard it is to actually get OFF Pinterest and go DO what you pinned ;). Right? Or is that just me?
THIS BROWN QUEEN TIP: Choose a day to do your meal planning. Usually grocery day or day before. Survey your pantry and plan your meals around things that you already have. Saves money and helps not to have those random foods lingering in your cabinet and freezer forever!
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This Brown Queen
This weeks meal plan and preparation. I’m hungry! Enjoy!
Sunday Meal Preparation:
1/2 bag frozen chicken wings
1 bag frozen turkey meatballs
1 lbs boneless chicken breast
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb tilapia
I cook ALL these meats on Sunday. Simultaneously. Yup. At the same d@m time! Also on Sunday I slice and divide my fruits and veggies for my smoothies for the week. I package in ziplocks for each day to make for easy grab, blend, and go in the morning!
Dinners & Snacks:
Sunday – Meatball Sandwiches with Salad Snack – yogurt smoothies
Monday – Tilapia, brown rice, broccoli/carrots/cauliflower steamed with cheese Snack – fruit juicers
Tuesday – BBQ Chicken, cheddar broccoli pasta, corn on the cob Snack – grapes
Wednesday – Chicken Penne with spaghetti sauce, salad Snack – uncrustables
Thursday – Chicken Lo Mein with asparagus stir fry Snack – Goldfish
Friday – *Kids Choice* Make Your Own Beef Tacos (whole wheat tortillas) Snack – frozen bananas with whip cream
For Breakfast for me (the kids eat at school), I’m starting off slow. Making smoothies all week with my pre-cut and packaged fruit and veggies from Sunday. Mixing a little of this and that to find combos I enjoy. I’ll post those when I find them out!
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This Brown Queen
Saved my whole life this week Queens. And my princes lives too. Who would have thought something so simple could have such a positive impact on my life!
As part of My Life in 32 Days, I decided that I wanted to develop healthier eating habits for myself and my kingdom. I, like many of us, am always so busy on a day to day basis. I work daily, and I have afterschool activities for the kids, along with activities for my husband, working on my craft, and the list can go on…like forever…but we don’t have time for that here. Point blank I’m ashamed to say that Take Out was my best friend. I can honestly say that we would eat out 90% of the week. Not only was this ridiculously unhealthy, but insanely expensive. So with hubby gone, I was determined develop, maintain, and be awesome at feeding my family! So that’s what I did.
I started by looking up some simple recipes on Pinterst. I am a really good cook, if I must say ;). But I don’t have TIME to cook. My aim was for simple meals, that were healthy, and delicious, that my princes would eat. Pinterest is my best friend. I picked out a few recipes and mixed in some simple recipes of my own and made my grocery list. Sunday early evening I cooked all my meat for the week. I cooked 2 lbs of boneless chicken breast, 1 lb of ground beef, and half a bag of frozen chicken wings. I froze everything besides what we were eating for dinner that night.
Here’s what and how we ate:
Sunday: Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
Monday: Baked BBQ chicken wings, brown rice, sweet corn (The wings were refrigerated so I simply heated them up, threw on minute brown rice and frozen sweet corn. 15 minutes TOPS)
Tuesday: Hamburger Helper, peas & carrots (I had completely made the hamburger helper on Sunday and froze it. Took it out and let it thaw through the day. Heated to eat with peas & carrots. 5 minutes)
Wednesday: Leftovers (Need I say more?)
Thursday: Make your own Chicken Tacos (Used the rest of the boneless chicken, thawed the night before and heated with peppers night of. The kids loved this! I set up an assembly line, wheat tortillas, salsa, cheese, sour cream and let them make their own. SUCCESS!)
Friday: Kids Choice! Little Caesar’s pizza Only $5 for a large! (I allowed us ONE day a week for cheat day. It’s a Kids Choice day so they wanted pizza.)
Saturday: Baked Chicken nuggets and Fries 🙂 (Saturday is a simple day. I usually do a big breakfast so minimal to NO desire to be in the kitchen the remainder of the day.
I’m new to this and I really want to incorporate healthier meals but I think I did good for my first week! We were actually able to eat REAL meals! My hubby is going to fall in love all over again! My princes ate EVERYTHING. SUCCESS!! Most importantly they were getting healthy food that I prepared. And I saved money! I’ll post next weeks plan soon. Not that ya’ll care but I’m still gonna share my growth!
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This Brown Queen
This Brown Queen 