I JUST KEEP COMING BACK!

Wow, it has been a while. I have been busy with life. I have been playing mommy over here and wife and daughter and have been on a weight loss journey that is like a roller coaster ride with me. When I first started this blog I wanted it to be about my cooking, but I cook everyday and it seems like all day sometimes and it takes so much work to write down the recipes and make sure that I have the measurements and timing down right. I cook at home with a scale and all but sometimes I don't measure and I find that cooking to fit my families taste is easy to do without all the measurements cause in my home I'm a damn short order cook sometimes. I have a daughter who don't eat meat ( only sometimes) and then I have my husband who use to eat only fast food and frozen pizza (don't ask me how he got that way cause you already know the answer, he came to me like that). These two are my nightmare diners, I must always figure out an alternative meal for them. Don't get me wrong they have their days were they are willing to eat what I cook that day. usually that is the day that I make a fast food style meal.Yup, since moving out here from Chicago and they don't have all the lovely corner fast food places that we like I have had to learn how to make them meals, and I have gotten pretty good at it if I do say so myself.

With all the cooking that I have been doing to make more fast food style meals I have had to push myself to workout more. I started my journey in 2012 and I lost a few pounds doing P90X with a modified diet plan from my specialist but it was not motivating me to get up everyday and do it so I found myself at the end of my 90 days adding in an extra week with no rest days to complete the program. I'm not saying it's a bad program but it's not for me. So then I moved on to trying out Turbofire and I immediately fell in love. It's upbeat and so positive and motivating. After I complete my workout I can't wait until the next day. I have never done a workout that makes me sweat and lay on the floor but have me begging for more. I have missed a couple days but it's not because I am feeling lazy and don't really want to do it this time it's because I be so busy that by the time I get to sit down from my day I be snoring and then there goes my workout. I use to live a pretty calm and quiet life but it seems that the more kids I had the less calm and quite I have become. I am always up and moving and I find myself praying for a moments break sometimes.

School is now back in session so that means that I have to play teacher to my 2yr old and my now 8mth old and tutor to my 13yr old and 9yr old. This year is starting off great we have been having some fun with some sensory bins and writing exercises and I have a lot more fun things planned for them this year. I enjoy spending time with my girls and learning with them while teaching them.

My family is my inspiration and what drives me to be better at anything I do. They also have shown me that there are many sides to me and each side is wonderful in it's own way. So I don't know what I am going to blog about, I might blog about my cooking, my kids, projects or just anything in my life in general. I can't promise one post a week which is what I wanted to do in the beginning , but I can promise to come back and post.

Collard Greens and Cornbread

It’s the day before Fathers Day and my girls would like to have their Sunday dinner today so we went to the Old Capitals Farmers Market to shop and talk with our local farmers While there we got some great stuff to eat. I don’t know about you but we love going to our farmers market. I take my girls with me on Saturdays and let them have a go at picking all the ingredients and I plan a meal with using what they have picked out. Sometimes I get to make a dessert and appetizers, but today we just got the veggies for our meal.

Taco Pasta

So after everyone else was done being sick in the house they all requested that I make a Taco Pasta meal for them yesterday. This is not what I had in mind but it will work. I am feeding five people in my house and my toddler eats like everyone else with this meal.

Taco Pasta

Ingredients: 

• 1lb box of Medium Shells
• 2lbs Ground Turkey
• 1 can Diced Tomatoes
• 1cup american cheese ( I make my own and it tastes just like velveeta so velveeta cheese will work just fine)
• 1/2cup of mozzarella cheese
• 1/2cup Sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 10oz can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4tbps Taco Seasoning
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

You want to cook the pasta according to the directions on the box for al dente pasta. Strain the pasta and set aside.  I tend to cook the pasta while I am cooking the rest of the meal and let it strain until I need it)

Start cooking the ground turkey until it is completely cooked.. Once the turkey is done you will want to drain any fat that has come off of the ground turkey during cooking. Then add the 4tbsp of taco seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. Mix it up well then from that point you will want to add the can of diced tomatoes, mix well. Now you will want to add the 1 can of soup and all the cheese and add the 1/2 cup of milk in slowly until it reaches a thinness or thickness that you like mix it until all the cheese is good and melted. Now you want to add the shells to the meat and cheese sauce and mix them in and then let it rest for about 5 minutes. Now you can serve.

Chicken Noodle Soup Day

Well, while I was all excited about starting a blog I had set out on a venture to make some great meals. Just so happen that life being as unpredictable as it is took over really fast, like the very next day. My house started to come down with the 24hr virus. It hit my second child first early in the day so she never made it to school. Then I got a call from my first child's school that let me know that she needed to come home for her and a few other classmates were sick also. Great is what I am thinking. A bug will now be in my house. I ran to the store to pick up everything to make Chicken Noodle Soup for my girls. No sooner than I made the soup did my third child started feeling sick. Now they are all feeling great and their father is home with the same symptoms, I guess the baby and I are next in this thing.

I was hoping to give a big bang opening of my blog with a recipe but that's not going to happen. So maybe next week once this bug has completely left my home I will post a recipe that I really want to try. It has taken me sometime to pick a recipe that my family will like. Two people in my home will only eat food if it tastes like it came from a box and I have a very picky toddler who likes food mushed up or with extra cheese. So until then, later.

New Beginnings

Hello all, So I'm Natasha and I have decided that I would do a blog about something that I am into at this moment. I am into feeding my family. I have been cooking and I have fallen in love with taking the time to put what some may call "Real Food" into my family bodies. I cook just about everything from scratch and most of the time I take it old school and not use any big kitchen appliances  I do that cause I what to get a feel for what I am making. I can't feel the dough for my breads if I am using a stand mixer or the bread machine. Plus  it helps with stress when I can use my hands to bang out my anger with a meat tenderizer instead of using the one that I got as a gift that just pokes the meat for me. So join me as I go on this journey of feeding my family and fighting the need for processed foods.