When you have a five year old you can get them to eat just about anything if you call it a pancake (or at least that has been my experience) Anyway… I was cruising around Pinterest and found 2 “pancake” recipes I really wanted to try. Here’s one and here’s the other.  (If you’re not on Pinterest and can’t see the recipes sorry ~ shoot me an email and I’ll send you an invite!)  I couldn’t wait so I decided to combine them and see what happened.

Absolute Deliciousness is what happened!!

Here’s how it went.

1 cup quinoa
1 zucchini shredded
3 tbsp flour
1 egg slightly scrambled
1/2 c shredded cheese (I used a mexican mix ~ it’s what I had in the fridge)
a couple tbsp diced onion (I used white, but it would have been better with green onions)
salt and pepper to taste

Let’s make it! 

Cook the Quinoa following the directions on the package.

While that’s cooking, grate the zucchini with a cheese grater. Then make sure you wring it out to get the moisture out. I used a tea towel ~ but if you have full size paper towels that will probably work too!

Once the zucchini is dried mix cheese, flour, egg, onions, salt and pepper in a bowl and combine.

When the Quinoa is done mix it in the bowl as well.

Add a little oil to the pan on medium heat. (I used a non stick pan and the oil was almost unnecessary)

Now grab a 1/4 cup measuring spoon and make 1/4 cup pancakes. I found it easiest to pour the batter on the pan and then flatten them out with a spoon while they were cooking on the pan.

Cook the pancakes for about 5 minutes on each side. They’ll get crispy and brown on both sides. YUM.

These would be great with a nice aioli or tzatziki ~ the recipes for both are on the original pins. I didn’t have the necessary ingredients to make either so we ate ours plain ~ they would have been good with a little ranch ~ but I wanted to avoid the extra calories.

All in all… delicious!!

Who doesn’t love to save money?! I know I do. The grocery store is one of the best places you can save money in your budget. One of my favorite ways to save grocery money is to be on the 90 day challenge, but the rest of the family has to eat too!

Here’s a great little ebook that will share a bunch of tips to help you save money at the grocery store.

I’d love to hear your favorite money saving tips! Share them in the comments, or stop by Facebook and share them with the community!

So I finally jumped on the bandwagon and joined Pinterest last week. If you want to follow me ~ please do! One of the things I’ve come to love more than anything else on Pinterest is RECIPES!! I love the pictures of the delicious looking food… it makes me really be able to “see” if we’ll like it or not! (for some reason I don’t know why because that doesn’t make a ton of sense, so just bear with me!)

Anyway… we missed our meal planning and shopping over the weekend so I decided to let Pinterest be my guide for meal planning this week. Here’s what I came up with… and I’m so excited I can’t even decide what we should have first!

You can find all these recipes in my food/drink board on Pinterest… so I’ll just link you directly to the pin.

Crockpot Parmesan Honey Pork Roast
with green beans
(we’ll have leftover pulled pork sandwiches for lunches as well)

Lentil Soup ~ this was left over from last week.

Monkey Bread Pizza ~ I’m so excited about this one I can’t see straight. I’ll have to dig out my bundt pan!

Curried Vegetable and Chickpea Stew (I’ll be adding chicken to this one… you know how my husband is)

Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake
Salad

Steak Pinwheels ~ these were one of the first things I found on Pinterest and HAD to have them!!
Salad, homemade bread

Leftover Night…

So… who’s your favorite to follow on Pinterest for great recipes? Do share… I’m still new over there and need some great people to connect with.

Another great way to find meal plan ideas is to go to OrgJunkie.com for Meal Plan Mondays! We’re linked up.

Being a work at home mom who hates to exercise (and it’s too cold to ride my bike) makes it tough to lose weight. I love cooking healthy food, but still kept gaining.

Just over 90 days ago I started the Body by Vi Challenge. I decided to give it a try and see how it went.

Well it went CRAZY!!

I started drinking 2 shakes a day ~ and eating a healthy dinner with my family and low and behold the inches just started melting off (without exercise!).  Take a look at my results!! (click the picture to make it bigger)

I lost 10.75 inches over the last 90 days. Went from a size 16 to a size 10! Yeah, I couldn’t even believe that one! Thank heaven my lovely family got me gift cards for Christmas. I’ve had a blast shopping for new clothes (which is something I usually hate to do!).

I posted my pics on facebook and received such an overwhelming and wonderful response I was just moved. It made me want to share a little more of my story ~ the back story ~ where I came from and how I got where I was … but also the  ”TO BE” story… where I’m heading next and what my next challenge is all about.

So take a look… (and yes, that’s a wonderful new shirt ~ LOVE being able to wear “nice” clothes again!)

Here’s the bad news… the friend that introduced me to the Body by Vi Challenge actually introduced it to me WAAAAY back in April of May of last year. Yep, I put up a wall, and said “that’s not for me” all the while getting bigger and bigger. Heaven only knows where  I might be at this point if I’d gotten started right away… Man I might have even had FUN at the pool last Summer! Well there’s no use going down that road.

BUT… if you want to do something about your body, your health, your fitness… join me! Take the challenge. Don’t put it off for another day, month, 6 months! Today is the day!

Shoot me an email, or message me on Facebook. Let’s talk about your goals and what we can do together to help you accomplish them. WOOT.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

It’s interesting. I just finished reading an article about kids and food.The mom who wrote the article has a kiddo who won’t eat veggies. She had all these thoughts before she became a parent, no dino shaped nuggets, not being a short order cook etc, and now while in the midst of the journey finds she has had to change some of her expectations and actions…

But that’s not what this post is about…

As I’m sitting here reading this post I’m thinking to myself, just make him eat it.

Then I started to laugh at myself. I have a spirited kindergartner… who is an EXCELLENT eater (thank heaven). I don’t struggle to get her to eat veggies, in fact, I think she’d be a vegetarian if I’d let her.

So no, I don’t have that struggle. But I do have MANY other struggles with my kiddo, and I often find myself being given “advice” from people who don’t live in my house, have never had to deal with my kiddo and her temperament for more than an hour, and don’t really know what it’s like here.

And yet… I’m thinking, just make him eat it.

WTF.

It happens all over the place though, people who don’t struggle with something tend to think it’s easy for everyone and you can “just do it”, when in fact, that’s probably not the case or they WOULD have!!

It was just an interesting catch for me this morning. A reminder for when I am dealing with people, in my business, in my life, even with my kiddo… just because something’s easy for me doesn’t mean it’s easy for someone else, and the solution probably isn’t “just do it” because they most likely would have if they could have.

It begs for me to take some time to problem solve, to get creative, to try things that are unconventional to get them over the hump and around the problem.

I personally am a “just do it” kind of person. That’s how I push through problems, and things I’m scared of… but that’s my personality. It’s my temperament. It isn’t a one size fits all solution. If I’m going to help others get through their stuff ~ I’m going to have to approach it from their point of view.

So… here’s my suggestion, (to myself and maybe you too) when you see a poor Dad carrying a kicking and screaming kiddo out of the Walmart ~ be gentle. Don’t you think if he could “just make her stop” he would have? If you see someone struggling to pick up the phone to make their calls ~ be gentle. Don’t you think if they could have they would have? If you see someone trying to get their kiddo to eat their veggies ~ contain your disdain… don’t you think they’ve probably tried everything they know how to do?

Instead, let’s begin offering some compassion, and a shoulder to lean on. These people (and I know because some days  I AM one!) are probably near their wits end, and don’t need anymore judgement from us. My guess is they’ve got enough blame and judgement of their own to go around. Yours isn’t necessary.

A little introduction to this piece of the blog… this year, as you may or may not know, I’ve decided to make connection a BIG piece of my life puzzle. Connection with you, the readers of my blog, as well as the members of my community, but also connection with myself.

As usually happens, once I made this decision, resources started appearing that would help me to really open myself up, to connect with you, and me. A Year With Myself is one such resource. It’s a year long project where you’re provided with a weekly prompt… a little something to read, dig into, think about, and ultimately write about. The funny thing is, when I decided to participate in AYWM, I initially thought the “perfect” place to write these, most likely to be intimate posts, ~ which means they’re super scary ~ would be on a blog I own, that no one really knows about. You like that right?!

But then I realized if I was really going to play full out, and live out loud it would be necessary for me to share this journey with others. For real… not faking it on a site no one every sees lol.

So this, is the first post in a Year with Myself and the question is…

What spaces are you standing between?

 At this time in my life I find myself standing between desire and panic. It’s become so clear, that it’s impossible to any longer ignore, some of the insane and overwhelming rules and regulations that have been driving my life these last 40 years. AND what started out as a small inkling, has grown into a full fledged desire to break all the rules and start living the way I ReALlY want to live ~ which at times includes breaking the rules when it comes to capitalization and YELLING online ~ which in the past would most definitely NOT been allowed.

So here I stand with this overwhelming desire to let myself go, to let myself be myself, and to not give a shit what people think, and to tell the voice in my head to shut the hell up, the world will NOT end if I dance in my underwear and then let the cat out of the bag that I did it. The world will not end if when I’m lost in grief I cry my heart out, loudly. The world will not end if I stop listening to the voices outside of myself (yet loudly inside my head) that tell me the “right” thing and what I “should” be doing. yeah.

I have the desire… but do you know what happens to **rule breakers**???

yeah, me neither, but I’ve heard it’s NOT GOOD.

That’s where the panic comes in… in my head it’s a BAAAAAD thing to be a rule breaker ~ I mean, rules were made for a reason! To break them is just NOT OK.

But there’s that other voice, the one that says ~ you know those rules are just holding you back, and keeping you small.

It’s time dammit. It’s time, it’s time, it’s time.

It’s time to forget the rules, and start doing what makes me feel GOOD, and ALIVE ~ and my guess is, that once I’ve done it…

I’m gonna be ok.

NO.

I’m gonna be even better than ok.

yeah.

ps. can I just tell you how many of my own rules I’ve broken in this one little post?! I can count at least 8. *sigh* I better hit publish before that voice wins and I start hitting delete.

It’s a Lee family tradition ~ or it has been in the past and my sister in law Anita is bringing it back ~ to make Lefse during the holidays. This year the girls were old enough to help… Hanna LOVES to cook, and she was eager to get in on the action. If you’re not familiar with Lefse, it’s a traditionally Norwegian dish made from Riced potatoes. Here’s a recipe.

As you may have noticed the facebook Timeline is real now… not one of those things you can start doing in “advance” but real and true it’s now on Facebook, and soon, it will be the default instead of an option.

It took me a long time to warm up to Facebook, and I hear a lot of complaining about the new timeline feature, and I have to tell you… I LOVE IT!! So here’s some tips I have to help you get your timeline working for you.

The cover image…

That’s the big image right at the top of your page. Use it to express yourself… who you are, what you’re about, what you believe. It’s your “first impression”, and it makes a HUGE difference how people will perceive you.

To add your cover image just hover over the bottom right hand corner of that large square.  You’ll get a little pop up message where you can choose the option you’d like to use to get your cover image. You can use an image from your facebook photos, or you can upload one from your computer.

Here’s some different cover photos… see how they land on you:

Remember, at its very essence, Facebook is a social platform, and I’d be very careful using such a direct “home business” cover image…

Be creative, and really look for something that says “you” when someone hits the page.

Your timeline…

This is your content. It’s content you post from your stream, or from your page. You have a lot of control over what shows up on this page now, so take advantage of it. If you’ve promoted on Facebook in a way you’re not quite as “proud of” now, no problem you can go through your whole stream and hide or delete the posts you don’t want people to see.

To hide or delete anything in your timeline hover over any box in your timeline. You’ll see a pencil and a star pop up in the top right hand corner. If you click the pencil it will give you “editing” options… it will give you the option to change the date, or add a location. It will also give you the option to hide or delete this item from your timeline. The last option is for things that other people post to your wall ~ which you can hide or delete if you don’t want them to show up, but if it’s spam you can also report the person/post as spam.

Featured items…

Now if you’d like to highlight some in particular ~ I like to do this with some of the photos/images I post ~ because it looks really nice and brings attention to that item you can “feature the item”. You do this by simply clicking on the star next to the pencil. When you feature an item it will show up across BOTH columns in your timeline. Here’s a look at how something can look when you make it a featured item.

View as…

Once you’ve got the basics down you can see it how other people will see it, because depending on your privacy settings different people will see different things when they come to your timeline.  Go to the top of the page again… to the left of “activity log” you’ll see a little settings gear. Click that and you’ll get a drop down menu ~ one of the options will be view as:

When you click view as you’ll get a little message asking you to choose someone. When you choose someone you’ll see your page the way they see it. You can also choose “public” and it will show you how “non friends” see your page. This is important when doing business because we want people to be able to get to know us, and if we send them a friend request it’s nice for them to be able to see what we’re about so they feel comfortable accepting that request.

The activity log…

Only YOU can see your activity log, and it is just that, a log of all your activity on Facebook. It’s a really nice way to be able to go back and check on what all you’ve been doing. If you have a social media “schedule” (and you do right?!) it’s a super easy way to, at a glance, see if you’re meeting that schedule or those goals, what you’re posting and when. Very handy!

Update your info…

If you need to update any of your personal info, want to add a website, or change your bio, just click on the “update info” link to the left of your activity log and you’ll be taken to a place where you can change/add something to any piece of your Facebook profile.

If you want to see what it looks like from your profile, just click the little “about” link right below the “small” image of you at the top of the page.

Change profile picture….

If you want to change your profile picture ~ the little square picture in the corner of your cover image… all you have to do is hover over the image and it will give you a pop up to change the image. Again you can choose from a few ways to add the image, from your webcam, your photos, from your computer etc.

At the time of this writing you’ll have 7 days before your timeline goes public. You’ll be the only one who can see the new version of your page. If you’re ready to show the world before that time is up, just go ahead and hit “publish” and your new timeline will be live.

I’m having a BLAST checking out people’s new timeline, so I hope this helps you get yours set up. Once you have it up and running stop by the Facebook page and leave a message so we can stop by and check it out!!

When we first start a new network marketing adventure we’re excited and ready to tell anyone and everyone we meet about our new adventure, and opportunity. This is all fine and good, but chances are we’ll soon find ourselves frustrated and maybe even a little bummed out because we didn’t get the responses we’d expected.

When this happens it gets harder and harder to open our mouths. We get a lot of self doubt and it’s at this point we may even think this was a big mistake and want to quit.

Don’t.

It wasn’t a mistake. Network marketing is an amazing vehicle to change your life. What you need to do though, is figure out exactly what to say to people, how to say it and when. When you figure out those things it gets a lot easier. You can practice before you find yourself in the situation, and by being able to practice you’ll increase your confidence in your ability to handle any situation. When you’re more confident people are more likely to take you seriously and listen to you, which means you bring more people into your business.

For a while I was pretty negative when it came to scripts. I felt like I wanted it to be “natural” and I wanted to just have a conversation… but then I started taking notice of what was actually happening when I was in social situations where I could easily share information about my business.

I didn’t.

I didn’t because I didn’t know what to say!!

It was then I found this great book from Todd Falcone. I was stunned at how much different I felt even walking into situations. I was amazed at how much different I FELT knowing I knew what to say to people, who to say it to, and when! It made all the difference in the world… and the thing is, these scripts worked whether I was at the bank, the grocery store or even on Facebook!!

If you do nothing else at least grab the free “go to” script from Todd. It will change the way you look at talking to people. I know it definitely did for me.

Next week we’re going to talk about who you really want to be talking to… and who you REALLY want to recruit into your business… my guess it is NOT who you’re currently talking to.

Let’s stay in touch! Let’s connect on Facebook if we aren’t already.

Facebook is a fantastic way to connect with people who may need or want your product or service as well as people who may want to join your business. However, there is a right way and a WRONG way to marketing yourself on Facebook. If you go about this the wrong way it will crush your chances at success.

Here’s a live review of the WRONG way to use Facebook marketing.

Here’s some tips to get it right:

1. Remember, Facebook is first and foremost a social site ~ be social. Talk about your life, your interests, post entertaining and informative content.

2. Connect! Facebook really is platform for connection. Which is GREAT ~ because the more you get to know and understand your prospective customer and/or business partner the better your chances of giving them exactly what they want/need is!

3. 80/20 rule. Make sure you’re sharing non work/product related stuff at least 80% of the time. Save the last 20% of your time to post things related to your business.

4. Big tip: use the private messaging system to do most of  your “business”. If you want to send someone information ~ or something specific, never do it on your wall or on a post ~ send them a private message. This way you can talk with them directly as well as not fill in your profile with tons of work stuff. This also gives you a better chance to follow up with the person. If you leave your link on your profile you have no control over who goes to your site, and no way to answer questions or help them out.

5. Be positive. Do NOT NOT NOT be a negative Nellie on Facebook. No one wants to work with or do business with someone who’s always complaining. Even if times are hard try to look at the positive side of things and if you can’t ~ then post nothing. Keep it positive. Always.

I’d love to see what you’re doing on Facebook. Feel free to connect with me I love meeting new people!