I found a few more great recipes for next week.  I’m really liking this meal planning.  I get so excited searching for new recipes!  Mealsmatter.org is my favorite resource for meal planning and it’s free.  There are so many great recipes on the site.  Makes meal planning a breeze!

Philly chicken cheese steaks = 7pts

*I’ve made a few changes from the original recipe.

Weight Watchers

Ingredients

Preparation

In a medium nonstick skillet, heat oil. Saute onion until browned and very soft, about 10 minutes. Add chicken and bell pepper; saute until chicken is golden brown and cooked through, 5-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat tortillas according to package directions. Spoon chicken mixture down center of each tortilla and cover with cheese; roll into cylinders and slice on diagonal.

Whole Wheat Nachos with corn

modified from original recipe

Ingredients

Preparation

preheat oven to 350 degrees F

cut each pita into 8 wedges and arrange on baking sheet. bake for 10-12 minutes then allow to cool.

spread pita wedges on parchement paper. spread salsa or sauce on each slice and top with olives, tomatoes, corn and cheese. place back into the oven for 3-4 min or until cheese is melted.

I picked up the equipment I will need for the fall fitness challenge.  A yoga mat, 3lb weights and a exercise ball.  I’m sooo excited!  The classes are taught by a girl I went to school with.  She just decided one day to buck up and get fit and her classes have become very popular.  She teaches her classes 3 days a week, two of the classes are at the legion across the field from our house.  Yeah!  The classes are only $2 each which is very reasonable and the signup fee for the challenge is only $25.  I’ve also joined CPO’s own “Fall into Fitness” Challenge on the shrinking mom’s and dad’s board (thanks seealirun!).  It’s great to have a support group to keep you motivated.  I haven’t had any luck these past few months doing it on my own and I can’t wait to see results….bring it on!!!

It is now noon and my son is still asleep.  Boy will he be in for a shock when school starts.  Ah, the life of a teenager!  I’m a little tired myself.  I woke up at 6:30am to go help my parents clean.  They clean a dental clinic once a week as well as our church.  After cleaning, I came home and had a little snooze.  Difficult to do when you have an active 6 yr old coming in and out of the house every 5 minutes.  So now I am up and tidying up the house a little before we head to the beach.  It’s another gorgeous day!  Where was this weather 3 weeks ago when I was on vacation?  I will definitely be packing a hat today.  I forgot one yesterday and boy was that a mistake.  I also didn’t put on any sunscreen.  Another big mistake resulting in a noticeable red hue on my face, chest and back…ouch!!!  Live and learn I guess.  I’m picking up some corn for everyone and mom is picking more fresh veggies from her garden.  Yum!! Nothing beats fresh veggies and corn!

Well, we are back from the beach! Although it was VERY windy, we had a great day.  The kids played in the water all day while mom and I watched and laughed at them.  Kids can be so entertaining!

run gabby!

caught you!

all three having fun!

cheeese!

and of course, there will always been drama.

Today was a gorgeous day.  A perfect beach day!  Something we’ve had very few of this summer.  We headed to my parents cottage, had some lunch and then off to the beach.  Dad was cutting grass, hubby was working, so it was just mom, the girls and I.  Silly me, I forgot my hat, something I will never do again.  The result…a little too much sun and a headache.  I thought I was going to throw up.   After a couple of advil and some shade I was feeling a little better.  My dad took the seadoo down and I went for a short ride.  The water was very choppy so I didn’t stay out long.  There is just something about the feel of sea water spraying in your face….I love it!  Afterwards, we headed back up to the cottage for supper.  Mom has a huge garden out back, so we have been eating fresh beans, carrots, and beets.  Can’t wait for her cucumbers to come up so I can make some mustard pickles.  Hopefully it will be nice again tomorrow and then we can do the same thing all over again.

all the beach essentials

a peach on the beach

monkey see, monkey do!

posing for a pic (grace didn’t come with me)

my little beach bum!

Only another week or so and my favorite dairy bar will close down for the year.  I think that must be why I’ve been spending so much time over there lately.  I had a s’more sundae the other day and a banana split the day before.  I wish I could have icecream every day…it makes me sooo happy!  Can you see why???

banana splits and sundaes

a s’more sundae

Braeden arrives home today…in a few hours actually.  Hubby called me earlier to let me know he arrived safe and sound in halifax.  He had a great trip to edmonton and got to spend time with his other siblings…one of which shares the same birthday….how cool is that???  Vickie posted some pics…thanks so much Vickie!!!  Anyhoo, I’m just waiting for my boy to arrive home so I can hear more about his trip and then I am off to work.  I have to take braeden back-to-school shopping this weekend.  Nothing fits him anymore.

having fun in edmonton(man he is getting big!)

the whole crew!

braeden with his brothers and sister

they share the same birthdays

relaxing

I come from a family of Irish and Scottish descent.  I love the music of both the Irish and Scots, but I am very partial to the sound of bagpipes.  I wanted to have a bagpiper play outside the church when we got married, but our church is smack dab in the middle of town and I didn’t want to disturb the neighbours.

The College of Piping in Summerside teaches drumming, bagpiping, highland dancing etc.  I would LOVE to enroll Grace in the highland dancing classes!  They have shows at the college all summer long and they are truly amazing!!! I’m hoping to see one before the end of the summer.

Here is a performance of a local band two years ago at the highland games…have a listen!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAaUSGSXYGk

I decided to do up a meal plan for next week.  I do them every so often, but I don’t think it’s something I could do every week.  Don’t get me wrong, I like structure.  But sometimes I find too much structure exhausting.  I can usually whip up a meal with what I have on hand.  I use mealsmatter.org when I want to do a meal plan for the week.  You can choose recipes from the site or include your own and the site compiles the ingredients into a shopping list.  It’s a great site and it’s free!  I’m starting back on my weight watchers program next week, so all of the recipes I choose are weight watchers recipes.  Here they are:

Turkey cheeseburgers

Vegetable and Cheese omelet

Chicken Stroganoff

Greek salad and Pork

Chili and cornbread casserole

Chicken Fried Rice

Grandma’s Casserole

Tortilla soup

Dijon fish fillets

Roasted herb potato wedges

BBQ chicken and sweet potato wedges

Hopefully I can get rid of these extra 20lbs that I have been carrying around the last few years!

I was planning on going to the beach today and then got lazy.  I lazed around and listened to Grace beg me to go to the beach.  Somedays I dread going especially if hubby isn’t going because there is sooo much stuff to pack.  But I thought there probably aren’t too many days left of summer, so I packed up the girls and off we went.  We headed down to the beach and hung out with my cousin and her friends for a bit.  Gabby got into the mud and Grace met some friends out in the water.  They both had a blast and I was able to get some great pics.  We ended up staying for supper and had fresh beets, carrots, beans (all from mom’s garden) new potatoes and meatballs….yummmm!!!  Here are some pics of our afternoon at the beach:

enjoying the mud as usual

 my little surfer girl

catching a wave

4 girls trying to fit on one boogie board

getting clean

Gabby has once again taken interest in the potty…woohoo!  She did take an interest a few months ago…even pee’d in the potty twice.  But I think it was more “good timing” than anything.  So once again, she is sitting on the potty…no actual pees yet, but I can wait.  I’m starting to give her little treats just for sitting on the potty.  Hopefully that will motivate her a little more.  It would be nice to have one child potty trained before the age of four.