I've moved :)

See y'all there!

Get all the latest updates found here:

https://skinnyonadime.wordpress.com

How about some apple pie with that….

Fall shake line up.

UP NEXT…..

Apple Pie.

This is so good y’all! I wasn’t sure I’d like it because it has applesauce in it but I was so wrong! Not a big applesauce fan. It’s a texture thing.

I bet even better next time if I use applesauce with cinnamon in it that it would be killa illa illa!!

Ok. Simple. Simple

You need the following:

• 1 scoop or packet of vanilla shakeology
• 1/2 cup of almond milk ( I do use vanilla almond milk)
• 1/2 cup of unsweet applesauce
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Ice

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients into the blender.
2. Blend well.
3. Pour.
4. Sip slowly thru a straw. Preferably your favorite straw!

Happy Monday y’all!

Shakeology for Fall Y’all

In honor of the first official day of Fall how about we get things kicked off right!

You better believe it when I say -

Fall is my favorite time of year! The smells, the crisp air, the colors, the foods, the pies, the football ~ everything!

Since introducing shakeology to my nutrition, I’ve fallen more and more fond of it and I cannot wait to try some of these recipes for my favorite time of year! They have all the right ingredients to keep me away from the pie table but fill that craving! Plus I get the added bonus of doing something so nutritious for my body it’s got to be illegal! Shakeology alone is truly the superest superfood on the Planet by far! Is superest even a word?? Oh well…. it is today

Yep, everything from pumpkin pie to candy canes! Each week I will share my favorite finds. So to my current and future shakeology fans, I hope you fall in love with them just as much as I already have!

You can create you own too. If you have a knack for making recipes, share one of your ideas here! Sharing is caring yo!

For all you (and me) everything Pumpkin lovers, lets start off with a Pumpkin Pie Shakeology. Now this one you can do with either Chocolate or Vanilla. Either flavor will work.

See – looks good right!

You will need the following:

• 1/2 cup of Almond Milk (I looove Vanilla)
• 1 Scoop or packet of Chocolate or Vanilla Shakeology
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 TSP cinnamon
• 1 TSP pupmkin pie spice
• 8 oz ice

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in the blender. (I have an old school blender so ANY blender will work, I promise)
2. BLEND!
3. DRINK!

Find your happy place and enjoy the day!

Progress–is it a dirty word?

I know progress is an odd topic since this is a food blog but I do have a new adventure in my life that isn’t going anywhere either.

I’ve loved my newly found discovery of taking regular recipes and making them healthy. I get to eat good but better :-) and y’all know how I love to eat. I also love a good workout. Maybe workout is the dirty word and not progress…….

No one wants to do workouts. I get it. They are hard. They take up time and effort that could be used enjoying that bag of oreos sitting over there that keep calling my name (Put a pipe in it brownie!). I’ve fought the struggle. I live the life. I give up more often than not.

I also regret every single time I give up. I always go back to the thought of what if I’d never quit – my abs would be so killer right now! My thighs wouldn’t jiggle right now! Those oreos wouldn’t stand a chance right now!

I’ve realized that as many times as I’ve given up, I’ve also started again. You see, I don’t think the problem is giving up, I think its in never getting back up again. Let’s be real. Life happens – sometimes more days than others but if I’m participating in my own life more times than not, it will begin to show off. It will begin to show up.

Looking and feeling great is not like instant coffee. We don’t get to pour, stir, sip, satisfy in this game of life. We have to invest our own time into what we really want. We have to let it brew. We have to let it simmer sometimes. Meaning – Let the work take its course. Let the progress reveal itself to you. Don’t give up when you get board or impatient.

Since April, I’ve had to start and stop a dozen times. But then I go to look in the mirror this past week and I see definition. I see muscle. I see progress!

We are all capable of the same progression. We are all capable of achieving the same goal. We all have that same love for ourselves within us. It just takes a little more digging for some rather than others.

I know it is a bit cliché but when you take time to work on you, others feed off of your new found energy or ora. You begin to put things in perspective, even if some of this time is spent in meditation or just a quiet place to let yourself evolve in that moment. Be present in the situation you are in. Don’t check out. Don’t give up on you. You are the most important person in the world to a lot of people. Show up, be there and be the best that you can be.

Work on living the best life you can. Learn to be complete in mind, body and soul.

If you are needing someone to help hold you accountable, count on me. Follow me on instagram. Heck follow me on facebook or find someone in your circle that will help push you to that next level of greatness, someone that gives you that source of power and commitment.

~ Live a beautiful life everyday ~

Change is coming….

It happens. It does.

New Years Resolutions are being made…. or not.

You have to learn how to write 2014 instead of 2013.

A new social media website takes the world by storm. (Just when you think you’ve got the last 12 mastered!)

I get a year older.

I finish another semester of school. Whew…. almost there!

The seasons change – unless you live in Florida.

Plans change.

My plan for this year was to get back into blogging a lot (because I love it), and cook healthy a lot (because I love that too!).

I faired half and half on both I think.

You see, Ima working momma machine, a gone back to college kid, and a fulltimer with a big commute twice a day.

My plate is generally overloaded but come next year things will be a changin.

I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m ready for things to get back to some kind of normal. Those are things that I want. I think God may have other plans for me waiting in the wings. I feel a shift coming. I feel like I need to be prepared for something. I feel like what I want might not be what I end up doing. I feel the door opening to a whole new world and I’m scared to walk through it. It is a good walk. Nothing scary. Well I’m scared but not in a –the boogie man is after you kinda scared.

Yes I just said boogie man. You believed in him right?

Life changed a lot in 2013 and its gonna change even more for us in 2014. I can’t wait really!

I have ideas for the blog and ideas for encouragement – myself and y’all.

I have plans and I’m making moves. It will take time. Things will be hectic for me in the beginning of the year but believe you me, before the calendar hits December again, we will be having a whole new conversation here at Skinny on a Dime! Just you watch and see!

Happy Thanksgiving (because I missed it)

Merry Christmas (its 2 weeks away!)

Happy New Year! May all your dreams and wishes for the new year come true!!!

Cook a meal, read a good book and I’ll be seeing all y’all real real soon! Maybe with a recipe or two  =)

Today is Monday……

 

Photo Source

Today is definitely Monday.

It is the first back to school Monday for the teens.

It is the first Monday of a long long year.

It is a Monday.

This is Menu Monday without a Menu.

I know we will eat - it is a Monday.

The Menu is drafted - it is a Monday.

Check out my Favorite Recipes page or my Pinterest Page for some really really yummy recipes until my eyes and body have recovered from the 4:50 wake-up call xxxxxxxxx

I have some new recipes to share and an update on my 30day challenge so stay tuned, we’re coming around…..

It’s Monday!

We fall off…..

It seems lately that I’m falling off more than I’m jumping on – the wagon that is. My mind has been in a strange place lately. One day I am on top and then before you know it I am right back smack down on the hard tiled floor.

I am scrambling. I am not a scrambler. I am a planner. I work best with a well thought out, organized, pre-determined plan. Sure I take into account the unexpected, while I am willing the forces of nature to never let that be an actual possibility. I am a planner. I am an organizer. I am a go getter. I fight with fierce compassion to the very end. When I run out of steam, I have an internal generator that keeps me going.

I’m not quiet sure how my days became so gelled together over the past 3….4….5 months but they did. I walked in a haze sometimes blissfully unaware that I was out of sync with my natural state as a planner. If you’ve hung around during my state of unawareness, I say thank you. Thank you for not deserting me. Thank you for still reading my little place in cyberspace.

With a new light comes a new direction. I do have new things for the future that I am really excited about and I hope to get going soon, some things involve that great husband of mine so that takes time (whole other topic), so while I still plan on passing along great recipes of yumminess and great tips and ideas that I think you might like, I am going to start to use my blog to keep me accountable. I need this. I am a planner, if I plan I will succeed. Along with weekly meal plans, I am going to lay out my weekly workout plan too. Of course life happens but if I have a place to keep me accountable I will work hard to not fail.

Hello (tap, tap tap….)

It’s me! I promise I still exist!
I have no words for the last several months of my life so in a nutshell I’ll spill it…
3 major elections in Florida
3 major semesters of school
Teenagers
Highschoolers
Basketball games
Husband
Dog
Homework
Papers
College Graduation =)
Groceries
Coupons
Budgets
Meal planning
Laundry (blah)
Some running (I did say some)
I've missed blogging. I've missed normal. I've missed cooking and taking photos.
I still cook but not regularly.
I still eat but not regularly.
I still work out but not regularly.
I need regular. I miss regular. I have to have regular to feel regular!
My New Years Resolution is not typical I guess in a new years resolution sense.
Of course I want to eat better, save more money, stay healthy, work out more and yada yada but really what I want to do most is -
Blog more. Cook more. Save more and Share more!
My New Years Resolution is to YOU!
Blogging keeps me on track and motivated. You keep me motivated, so I dedicate this blog post to you and our future together.
This year has already proven to be on the laid back track.
I mean I haven’t gotten dressed in anything other than pj’s since Sunday.
Unfortunately it will come to an end Monday morning but hey for now I’ll pj it out!
So Happy New Year to you!
Happy New Year to us!
I can’t wait to cook, save and share!
Happy Wednesday! Happy First Week of 2013! Happy whatever you want it to be!
Have a great day or what is left of it!

Happy Anniversary with “Fish n Chips” Recipe

Four years ago to this exact day, I started the easiest thing I’d ever done in my journey to lose weight.
The shopping was over.
The planning was done.
I had meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
I woke up with a mentality of nothing to loose but weight!
As I am reminded of how different yet the same my life is on this very day,
I take a trip back to one of my favorite meals I made.
It includes two of my favorites – Fish and potatoes :)
It was passed down to me and quickly became a common addition to the weekly meal plan.
Fish n Chips (I love my hot sauce)
{Printable Link}

You will need:

For the fish:

2 4oz filets of Tilapia (or your choice of fish)
Olive oil spray
1/4 cup corn meal
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Chips:

2-3 red potatoes – diced
3 Tbsp – olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

or you can use my favorite Onion roasted potatoes
Directions:

For the fish:

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Rinse off the fish and spray with olive oil spray.
3. Pour cornmeal into a zip-lock bag with salt and pepper.
4. Add fish to zip-lock bag and shake shake shake.
5. Once covered, place on a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil spray also, and bake for about 20 minutes or until done, turning over once.

For the Chips

1. Wash the potatoes and cut to desired likeness. I like mine diced but you can cut them long ways like fries. I also leave the skin on .
2. Spray baking pan with olive oil spray and add the olive oil to the pan as well.
3. Add the potatoes to the pan and season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake for about 35 minutes or until done.

Or you can use the recipe for the Onion roasted potatoes :) mmmm

Servings: 2 (double if you plan on sharing!)
Grab a plate and enjoy and meal free of guilt and full of yumminess!
So Happy Anniversary to me and Happy success to all of you! Make it a great week!

One more year......

I'm super busy at work but I'm taking a break long enough to say........
It's my burfday ~ it's my burfday!
Happy Friday the 13th readers! Now go have some fun!

New years day tradition

The first day of each year for me starts off the same!
Before the day is over I've enjoyed ~ fried fish
Cabbage
Black eyed peas
Corn bread
And macaroni & cheese ~ always macaroni & cheese!
This year was no different.
Sure I could make this meal a little more skinny friendly but it somehow just tastes better with all the fatty stuff!
Tomorrow we will start back with skinny.
I don't really do resolutions. Everyday is a new day for me!
Happy new year readers! May your year be full of blessings.

Second Time around

For the second time this year I will prepare a meal like this.
Typically I only do it once a year and only about 3 people eat it.
This year though about 10 people will be eating it!
My Christmas spirit runith over! I have longed for a family gathering where I prepared the meal!
I cannot wait for them all to arrive with smiling faces and hearts of joy.
My husband will smoke a turkey with his crafty smoking skills
and I will get carried away with the cheese in the macaroni and celery in the southern cornbread dressing!
If I don’t get too caught up in the hype I will try to remember to snap photos of each dish.
They are all so delicious.
Our table will be covered with:
Smoked Turkey
Baked Ham
Cabbage (or Turnip Greens)
Southern cornbread dressing
Macaroni and Cheese
Chicken and Dumplins
Pasta Salad
Candied Yams
Giblet Gravy
Rolls, pies, cakes and much much more!
I hope this holiday season you get to spend every second with every one you love!
Happy Holidays!

Help with blogger

Hello! anyone out there have a blog on blogger?
I have worked hard on my blog for a couple of years
but now all of  my hard work, sweat and tears ~ not really~ seem to have disappeared!
My picutres are gone, gone, gone!
I know the recipes will still be just as good but a picture is worth 1000 words they say!
If anyone knows why this might have happened or how I can fix it, please let me know
Please and thank you,
Sara
Skinny on a Dime!
ps. If I get this resolved I have an awesome recipe to share that includes pasta!
Maybe just a little motivation will help things along hehe….

YO! Dawg!




Happy Hump Day ~ Readers!
My world is busy and I have bad picture lighting but I”m still cookin!
See you soon with new recipes! (Once I figure out the lighting part!)

Dangerous

This is what happens when you let a teenager take over the kitchen

and cook anything he can get his grubby little hands on….

An Angel food cake that stuck to the pan, deflated and fell to pieces!

It still tasted good though :)

And this is what happens when a large part of the country is dealing with devastating weather…..

You see weird clouds and snap pictures of it

because that is what everyone else is doing!

Nothing happened here in Florida.

It just caught my attention just as the sun when down the other night.

My phone doesn’t do it justice though,

because the sky was very orange and pink for a while.

I am praying for all of the families affected by these horrendous storms that lost lives and homes

I am so scatter brained lately.

This is wall art in our town displaying my scatteredness….

Which explains my ability to make up words like scatteredness!

I haven’t really cooked, which has me all moody and emotional about staying fit and healthy.

I haven’t been able to run going on my second week now, which just adds fuel to the fire.

My husband says “LIG” it! HA ~ Let it go!

I think I will.

Until I think about it again and the cycle repeats itself.

More recipes next week when I reinvent myself and start a new day!

I have a huge “I wanna try this one” pile.

I might pull one or two out of the hat if I can muster up the ability to chop some veggies and edit some photos.

Have a great rest of the week.

Enchiladas ~ Two ways, both mmm good!

I try to break the trend in my house sometimes from mexican food, but it just always creeps its way back into my menu life! Instead of fighting this battle weekly, I look for variations of the same type of meals. For instance, Enchiladas. I’m sure there are numerous ways in the recipe world to make these but I have two that have made the top 250 list of mexican items in my house!
Beef Enchiladas

AND

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

The Beef Enchilada dish is an original recipe that I made adjustments to so that I could have a healthy meal.
The Creamy Chicken Enchilada dish was already adjusted to be healthy.
I can’t decide. They are both delish. I love the creaminess of the chicken version and the corn tortilla texture of the other.
Print out your own recipe below, give both a try and share what you think!
Beef Enchilada Recipe (my adjustments) and original recipe found here – fyi I used canned enchilada sauce also. The recipe gives you an option to make your own.
Creamy Chicken Enchilada Recipe

Things that keep me from blogging

1. An infected computer

2. My to do list runith over

3. Giving up a Saturday to do yard work

4. Not cooking on my stove for two weeks

5. A DVR full of the latest and greatest episodes of reality tv

6. Tornado warnings and cows flying

7. Lack of sleep ~ that’s why I saw cows flying!

8. No trips to the stores

Needless to say I haven’t been very successful this week. I also am making a change to my meal plan if you were following it.

I cooked Tacos last night because of #8!

I am cooking a different recipe tonight I found on Skinny Taste, Baked chicken with Dijon and Lime.

I have all of these ingredients at my house and I don’t need to run to the store!

Click here if you would like to print one out for yourself and tomorrow I will post the pork chop recipe, mmmm!

May tomorrow be a more productive day!

Is it extreme to coupon?

There is a new show out that exaggerates couponing and in my opinion, takes it to a whole different playing field. I really don’t agree with the direction the show is going and I am an avid couponer. I saw the show back in the winter when they aired the pilot show and I didn’t like it then either.

I already get a few angry faces when I stand in line with all of my coupons and this will just justify it more in their mind that I am crazy for doing what I do.

I didn’t start couponing to be extreme or for the thrills, I did it to save my family money. It did become addicting and I do not shop without coupons now but it was a total saving grace to have the know how on using coupons a few years ago. I just now have gotten to the point of constant stockpiling and am seeing true benefits of savings on my groceries. I get to enjoy a few extra dollars saved which was the ultimate goal.

Along the process I’ve learned how to stick with foods I need to stay healthy so that I’m not wasting my money on processed or unhealthy foods. On occasion though,  I do by things that are not needed but if I can get those items for FREE and either keep the guys happy or donate them to my local food bank or our church food drive, then that is what I do. I don’t keep 20 bottles of something in my house just to save a dollar or two.

For all of the people that are on the show, they may have different agendas for why they coupon. I personally get frustrated with other people that coupon for the thrill and take all of certain items off of the shelf just because they know how to get them for free! Did they ever think ~ what if I needed that item that week too? To me that is just inconsiderate but I can’t complain too much because I understand their madness. I just wish they would leave some for the next couponing sister!

A lot of people ask how am I able to do it. I have a very organized system that I use for my coupons which helps the process not seem so chaotic and overwhelming because it can be.

My process goes something like this:

I make a weekly meal plan

I make a list

I pull out coupons I need

I go shop! :) It really doesn’t take that much time at ALL!

  

I use the binder system for coupons I print out on the computer and ones I find in magazines and in the store

I keep my weekly inserts in a drawer organized by month.

I only clip those when they are needed.

Another question I get asked is “Where in the world do you find all of those coupons?”

Newspaper inserts

Magazines

And numerous websites. Here is small list of my favorites!

Target.com

Smartsource.com

Redplum.com

coupons.com

allyou.com

cookingwithkraft.com

printablecouponsanddeals.com

The secret is knowing how to make it all work for you!

I hope this helps out some newbie's to the coupon world.

I would be glad to answer whatever questions you have.

Shot me an email or leave a savvy savings comment :)

Have an awesome day!

VACA ~~ Woot Woot

I'm on vacation woohoo! I have been waiting and waiting on this day to come since forever it seems like! I already live in the sunshine state so we didn't plan a big trip out of town but I am going to enjoy some much needed R & R. I will still do daily posts.
I do have a few shopping trips to brag blog about so I will put those up later.
I hope you all get to enjoy your week, oh and I do have a weekly menu I will put up before the day is over! Since I'm at home the whole week, I planned every meal because I didn't want to have overkill on extra points and I didn't want to spend unnecessary money.

Update: I am still running :0). The whole gang actually got out and ran this morning. The guys kicked my butt, but it was fun to be out together.

The round table

Today on our way home from church, I took a poll to decide what to do for dinner. Yes, I have a weekly menu but ~ I have an extra teenager this weekend and I have overextended my time on other things so I had to break from the norm. Plus I couldn’t remember what was on the menu for tonight lol! So here were the votes:

2 votes Ribs
3 votes Grilled stuffed Burgers
1 vote Lasagna
3 votes Fish
And the winner is……….undecided!
I’m really leaning more towards the grilled stuffed burgers but that would involve me getting in my car now that I’m home and making a trip to the store for the meat. It may end up being grilled ribs just because I have some in the freezer (BOG2 free at Publix :0)! and that also means my hubby will do most of the cooking!