Menu Ideas

Here are a few fast and easy things that the Fitch girls eat on a regular basis. Most of it is done with organic foods. The cheese we eat is also health market cheese that has probiotics in it. Other ideas to come soon...

Roasted Chicken, with potatoes and carrots:

It does take 1.5 hours to cook, but you just throw it all in a pan (cut up the potatoes and use baby carrots) with a stick of butter and season the bird. Then every 30 minutes just bast it. The prep time is so easy, that i use this meal when i am at home, but busy. (pick all the leftover meat off and FREEZE THE BONES when you are done)

With the left over meat you can make one of the next two dishes.

Chicken Casserole:

Leftover chicken (or six breasts fully cooked and diced)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8oz sour cream

mix these three things together. Spread crushed up Ritx crackers over the top and cook at 350 for 30 minutes. Delicious

Chicken Broccoli and Cheesy Rice:

Left over Chicken (or how ever much you want to add)

Buy and prepare a packet of cheesy broccoli rice. while that is cooking...

In a skillet, cut up and put Broccoli in, with a little bit of water in the bottom, cover it, and cook until it is bright green.

Add in the chicken and cover it again.

Within 10 minutes that rice will be done as well as the chicken and broccoli. Put it all together in a big bowl and put it on the table.

Salmon:

This is so easy to cook. You can buy 1.50 frozen wild caught salmon at HyVee. it is PINK so my daughter will eat it.

Just throw it in the skillet (a little olive oil in the bottom) and salt and cover it. Let it sit for five minutes while you...

Prepare green salad and apples. Sometimes some cheese sliced too.

Flip the fish after 5 minutes. Salt and cover.

Finish getting the table set.

Pull the fish off and you have a full meal in 15 minutes. Prep and all.

Veggie Pasta Soup:

This will take a day to prepare, but then you can freeze and pull it out later. it is a family favorite here.

To make broth: bring to a boil two saved chicken carcasses then let them simmer for 6-8 hours

Then drain the bones and you should have over a gallon over broth left (super healthy).

Add to it: One box of bow tie noodles, 1 can peas, 1 can carrots, 1 can corn and one can garbanzo beans

Serve with grapes, hard boiled eggs and cheese cubes.

it tastes just like chicken n noodles that you put over potatoes, but it is really healthy and low in calories.

Pearl Team

Eliza has been asked to join the new Pearl Team at Amy Peel Dance Avenue where she dances. This is a competition team.

The parents were told that our child was asked because they showed great improvement in:

1. The ability and desire to dance.
2. Listening to teachers.
3. Treating their friends kindly.

I like how they stated "showed improvement". :) I just love my daughter, and I have to say, she did work for this. I hope her passion only continues to grow, and all three of these things continue to increase in her life.

Leaps and Bounds....

Am i the only one who has a child who will out of nowhere just start getting things? Eliza has been doing this over the last few months. She went from not being able to know her letters in a snap, to knowing about 8 of them. She is also learning what sound the letters make, and was able to tell me more than one of them the other day.

Math has always been a strong suit for her, but she is learning more and more the concepts that are used in figuring out addition and subtraction.

One place she could still improve are her social skills. This was the main reason that i wanted to wait and send her to Kindergarten just after her sixth birthday. With all of the things that she has been learning so well, i was starting to question my decision. Until i see the captain of the mean girls show up.

Oh yeah, it is that bad. If you have seen the movie "Mean Girls" with Lindsay Lohan, you know what I am talking about. Unfortunately, this character is one that i see reflected in Eliza sometimes.

But i think she is getting it. Twice she has chose to apologize to the person without being asked to. And once, she even prayed for forgiveness for treating someone so badly.

Having a child who is having their feelings hurt is no fun. Eliza has been on the receiving end more than once. But I think it is even worse when your child is the one doing the hurting. Praise God that she is learning that this is not how we are suppose to treat each other.

Marlboro Ultra Lights

As i was cleaning out above my refrigerator today, I found an almost full pack of cigarettes. I opened the lid to smell them, thinking it might be nice. On the contrary, they smelled awful!!! And not just a stale smell, it was a normal cigarette smell. All i could think was, OH PRAISE GOD!!!!!

After 50+ attempts at quitting, and wanting to quit for about eight years, i was finally fully released from this addiction. There have been times over the last year plus, that i thought, "Hmm, i think i want a cigarette", but it is always followed by the reminder of these things:

1. They were making me sick, literally.
2. I can run now, when i couldn't before.
3. It is one less thing for me to worry about.
4. I think it stinks now, and considering I always carried a body spray with me, I think I always did.
5. Lord willing, I quit soon enough to allow myself more years with my daughter and other loved one.

What a nice reminder this was for me today. Just when I start getting hard on myself about my lack of discipline, I am given a visual of just how much the Lord has been healing me from the inside out.

Back sliding....

These last couple of months have been a struggle. To be honest it all started the first day of the fair. I kind of allowed myself to let up on the diet. To make matters worse, the next day I went on vacation. The next week, then I get back and the gym has no classes, just the fitness center. This got my completely off the routine that I had created.

September began and I was doing pretty good with making it to the gym. However with school and a whole new schedule starting, I started to slack off on the food. Then in October, my schedule took a fierce shift. It has not been good. I am finding it hard to make it to the gym, and the diet is so far off....i have kraft singles in my fridge!?!??! WHAT THE?????

To add to the rut I have found my way in to, I now have an injured wrist and knee. This will limit my work outs to the treadmill and swimming pool. I think that this might be happening so that I get my focus back on eating the right foods, in the right amount.

I am writing all this, not to complain, or as an excuse, but rather I hope to look back on it very soon as a reflection of how was in a rut, and through the grace of God, got out of it quickly!!!

Here's hoping!

Timothy Lovers Fitch

Check out the newest member of our family!

Apparently, on Wednesday of this week, this cat was found by my neighborhood mail man. He put the cat in his truck and was going to take it to the shelter. He then stopped at the Barber Shop in my neighborhood (this is a local hang out for the fellas) and the cat jumped out of the truck and walked right into the Barber Shop.

The men were enjoying him, but the wife of the owner said the cat had to go, as they had just taken in another one last week. So they called my friend Tammy (her dad is a regular up there) since they know how much she loves animals.

Tammy already has a few cats, and so she called me to see if I wanted him. I said no at first, as I had visions of being bit. Then I said, ok bring him over and we will see. Well the cat came right to me! I looked at him and said "Ah, Timothy." And that is how he got the name. We brought him right in, and he was at home instantly!

My friend thought his name should be Lovers, because he really is just that sweet. So his full name is Timothy Lovers Fitch. It is a great addition to our family, and I am sure the wrath of Gracie will pass soon. I hope. :)