Cheap and Healthy Meals for Lunch and Dinner

My Week of Cheap Healthy Meals 

I cant lie, i've been really lazy with writing any blogs lately but this week I planned and ate most of my meals from a web site that I found on Pinterest! I always need some inspiration when it comes to cooking tasty meals with a lot of different veggies.  

When selecting my meals I always consider: 

                             1.) For which of these recipes do I already have some ingredients?

                             2.) Will Steve(my husband) eat it?

                             3.) Can I easily cut up some portion of it to feed to my toddler?

My first Meal this week:

Sesame Chicken and Rice Bowl 

     This meal was pretty tasty AND quick.  It gives you ingredients to make your own sauce but I didnt start cooking till late so I used a bottle of teriyaki sauce that I already had.  I was nervous about eating cooked spinach plain but when I mixed it with everything else it was actually quite good.  This is a meal I would eat again. 

Recipe

The following day's lunch:

Teriyaki Chicken Salad 

I always make extra protein for the following day's lunch so that I can make a tasty salad.  I just use whatever veggies and toppings are in the kitchen, sadly I didnt have any oranges so I used tomatoes instead.  This is spinach, crunchy corn tortillas, cheese, chicken, and almonds. (kinda random)

Dinner Day 2

Linguine with Asparagus and Lemon 

This was my favorite meal of the week!  It was the quickest meal of them all and by far the tastiest.  Youre suppose to use whole wheat pasta but this is what was already in my pantry.  My little girl Lucy loved the tasty noodles and we had plenty left over for Lunch the following day. 

Recipe 

Lunch a day later: 

There werent any leftovers for this Lunch so I had a super tasty apple and chicken salad! I made some smoky chicken and added in apples, bacon bits, almonds, goat cheese, and a home made vinagrette. Best. Lunch. Ever. 

Dinner the next night: 

Goat Cheese and Veggie Quesadillas 

This recipe only had goat cheese, tomatoes, Thyme, and sauteed onions but it didnt seem like enough to me so I added cucumber and avocado as well.  This meal was....okay.  It really wasnt as tasty as I would have hoped and the goat cheese didnt really melt so it didnt fulfill my desire for a cheesy quesadilla.  I wont be making it again unfortunately...

Recipe 

There are 88 meals on this web site so there are a ton of options and i'm planning on making a couple more.  Ill include the link to the site itself so you can browse and find what works for you! Enjoy some healthy meals and get those veggies in! 

Tasty Meals: Click Here 

Durango Farmers Market

     Somehow time really got away from me this week and it took me a little longer to edit all of the images from this past weeks fun adventure, BUT i'd like to take a minute to review the Durango Farmers Market.  There was this undeniable energy at the farmers market that made me so excited to be there.  The venders were friendly and obviously passionate about their booths and everything was fresh and beautiful and the smells of pastries and fresh jams filled the air! 

As you walk in the first thing that catches your attention is the live music.  It was really fun to listen to.  The upbeat folk style really got Lucy wiggling in her stroller.  

In my opinion....there is nothing better than fresh, flaky, sweet pastry goodness! If I could eat them all day every day and not go into a Diabetic coma I would! These people were so nice and loved that I was snapping some photos of their goods. 

All of the vegetables were SO colorful and they were in much better shape than any super market produce than i've ever seen.  I love the idea of shopping local (I haven't fully converted yet but I hope to be able to get all of my produce from the market soon!).  The fact that you're supporting a family and that you are face to face with the supplier just really appeals to me.  These people work so hard and are so knowledgable and passionate about their produce, its contagious.  I've never been so excited about beets before! haha 

This booth had all home made soaps and lotion bars that you rub on your hands and other interesting places that the booth owner told be about lol At one point he said "come here girl and rub this on your canyons...."  Now i'm still not sure what canyons he was talking about, I assume flattery isn't his strong point haha but they were so fragrant and pretty I didn't mind! 

 I love love love jewelry.  My mom and I always stop at booths where people hand make jewelry, we find it fascinating, so seeing this always takes me back to looking around at festivals in Pennsylvania with her.   I really liked the necklaces, they had a lot that support Colorado pride, and now that I'm a Rocky Mountain convert, I might have to invest in one of those bad boys. 

Mmmmm, this booth had home made jelly, jams, and marinades.  I had some of her raspberry and cream cheese spread and it was so so good!  Steve tried a little of her orange bbq chicken marinade and instantly fell in love.  She has a lot of her sauces in local stores and seems pretty darn successful.  We loved it! 

Click here to go to their Web site and Get some Tasties! 

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Last but not least there was a car show right by the market and I wanted to take pictures of all of them to show you but there were way too many to count! Here are a couple of my favorites :) 

Thanks for stopping by! See ya later this week! 

Jamberry Nails

   

       Welcome back! This week I am going to be reviewing Jamberry Nail Wraps!  Now, i'll start off by saying that this is a product that I was not a believer of.  I really like going to the salon to get gel nails, BUT I still always liked the really cute designs that Jamberry had.
       The first time that I tried these nails I was at a friends house and she had the nail dryer and application kit and all of the stuff they suggest having in order to put these nails on.....after having all of this my nails still came off the day after I put them on.  I want to emphasize that the most important part of getting these nails to work is the APPLIATION TECHNIQUE that you use.
       2 years after my failed attempt to put these nails on my lovely friend had a Jamberry party and I figured that if people kept buying these nails then maybe my technique was flawed, not the nails themselves. SO, I set out to give these bad boys another try.

Here are the order of events in which I'd like to talk about my experience: 

1.) What a sheet of nails include 

2.) The BEST application technique/materials I used 

3.) Before and after Photos

4.) Lastly, would I use them again?

1.) This is what you get when you order a set of Jamberry Wraps

I understood that when I ordered that I would get enough for 2 manicures but I couldn't figure out how to get 2 pedicures out of these because none of the wraps seemed small enough for toes.  BUT, if you look at the picture above, you're suppose to cut up a big one to get little wraps for your toes, duhhh, so now ill have to go back and try this sometime. 

2.) BEST application technique that actually works

To do this I didn't have ANY of the Jamberry nail kits or nail heater (i'm too cheap, however i'm sure they would have been helpful to have).  To put on these nails I used: A hairdryer, scissors, a plastic bag, a freezer pack, and nail clippers (lucy's baby ones worked the best!).  

*It really wasn't that hard, and the best advice in this video was to get the tip hot and pull it down over my nail to make sure I got the seal on really good at the edge of my nail before I clipped them. The edge was what pealed off of my nails first when I didn't apply them right. These nails are suppose to last 2 weeks, my goal was to see how true that was. 

3.) Before .....

 ......And AFTER(2 weeks later)

I never realized how hard it was being a hand model until I saw the dry cracked skin all over my nail beds *sheesh. Thankfully photoshop smoothed some things out for me haha.

4.) Would I use these again?

So on the 2nd photo you can see that my nails had grown out at the base after 2 weeks, and at the very top corners of my nails some of them (mainly my pointer fingers) started to peal just a little, but for the most part they stayed on great! I loved looking down at my cute nails and seeing a more intricate design than a salon would have been able to execute and putting them on was so fun. Im one of those people who cant sit still during a TV show, so these were perfect for keeping me busy. 

I also did put one of these wraps on each of my big toes and they stayed on for like 3 weeks! 

I would totally use these again, for $15 a set I think you get a good amount for your money. You can also make them last longer if you only use them for an accent nail here and there. I'd love to get some of these cute 4th of July nails. If you're interested in buying any i'll include a link below to my friend, Maddie's page, who is a consultant. 

Purchase Jamberry Wraps Here

The BEST Carne Asada

    Today was a dreary day in Durango.  It rained, it hailed, and for some reason I wanted tacos. (That's normal, right?)  I was dreaming of my study abroad trip from college that we took to Mexico, and Mexico City had the BEST Carne Asada tacos that I have ever had.  They were tasty and they were the cheapest food to buy! So from my limited experience i'm going to review this tasty Carne Asada recipe that I found on Pinterest(link at the bottom)!

Take a tasty food adventure with Kelsey (Mexico edition)....

 These are the ingredients for the marinade! I actually didn't have any real lemons or limes but I had those little lemon and lime juices in my fridge so I used a little of each.  I have no clue what Mexican oregano is (i'm sure its delicious) but I just used the plain old thing, and I substituted chili powder for some sweet paprika.  I also have a tendency to not measure any of my ingredients (thanks mom ;)) but it always works out! 

   I'm not sure how long the recipe said to marinade the steak but with my little Lucy girl I never have enough time (or I forget) to give it the time it deserves.  I put it in the fridge for maybe 20 min and then I pour the sauce in with the meat while it cooks so it can soak more of that tastiness up in the skillet. 

     Of course I sampled the meat before putting it in those tasty corn tortillas. It. Was. Awesome.  Tangy and juicy and everything I want in my Carne!

  Here's my lovely little Taco.  With authentic Carne Asada less is best.  Its all about the meat my friends! In Mexico the tacos always had some cilantro, onion, and carne.  Thats it!  I added some tasty avocado as well because it was ripe and ready and begging to be a part of my plate.  Something I never noticed before was how whenever I got a taco it was on two corn tortillas and not one.  Im not sure if this is for the reason I think its for, but it keeps the taco from breaking and becoming a mess when I use just one.  So I suggest using two per taco.

I hope I made you taco hungry! Give this a try at your next meal, you wont be disappointed!


The BEST Carne Asada Recipe 

My Favorite Spanish Rice Recipe 

Granola Fields

          Hey Everyone! Late last night was one of those nights, the kind where you lay there with zero air conditioning but you absolutely need sheets no matter what and your pillows are so flat that it feels like your resting your head on a pancake.  Obviously it was the perfect time to stay up late and dream about a new project to keep me busy for a while.  Steve and I just moved to Colorado and let me tell yah, its the most beautiful place that i've ever seen.  This place is GRANOLA-ville.  Ive never seen so many tie-dye wearing, dog loving, weed smoking, organic living individuals in my life.  The people here are soooo nice and helpful.  We love our new lives here but as I've become a stay at home mom i've found that I need some more hobbies to keep me busy and i've learned that I have a lot of interests that don't necessarily connect.  I felt the need to find some kind of harmony amongst them so that my mind isn't always swarming with ideas, thus the birth of this blog!

          For example.......I love Lularoe clothing...

...........but we all cant become consultants!  Some of us (me) need to be happy consumers so that the market doesn't become so saturated with sellers.  I also like supporting my friends in their independent businesses from time to time.  The hard part about that is getting an unbiased opinion on what works with "It Works", what the clothing sizing is like with "Lularoe", are "Jamberry" nails worth it?  

I'll be the first to tell you that i'm a bit of a skeptic, but I don't always love that about myself.   I have a desire to become more open-minded, less judgmental, and more understanding.  I like trying new things and sharing things that I love with others! 

In this Blog I will be showing you some of my favorite finds and telling you about mistakes and judgments i've made in the past about products that sometimes have a bad rep.  Durango, CO has so many local natural and organic products as well (there are endless things for me to try). I cant wait to get started. Ill be taking photography at local farmers markets and of clothing that I love.  Stay tuned for some awesome stuff.  I hope you enjoy learning some fun facts with me! 

If there's a product that you want to know about let me know! I'm open to suggestions.