This Mom's Menu - Low Carb Meal Plan and Chat!

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Hey there friends! It's been ages since I have shared one of these posts and boy how I've missed it!

This may sound a little crazy, but when I share one of these posts I really feel like I am sitting down to chat with a close friend and this friendship has been on hold for far too long!

I am not going to promise that I will be sharing these posts regularly, but I hope to get them to you at least once a month.

If this is your first time reading one of my weekly menu posts, prepare for a chat. I love letting you all get to know me, and I love it even more when you guys chime in with what's going on in your lives down in the comments.

I try to keep my recipe posts to the point, and don't share much personal info there but here - it's all on the table. With that said, I totally get it if you are just here for the menu, and it's always located toward the end of the post, so feel free to scroll on down.

Since it's been a while, this may be a long one so don't say I didn't warn you!

And lastly, I am also sharing my weekly meal plans in my Instagram stories. I post for the week on Saturday or Sunday and save them all to my stories so be sure to check it out. You can also check out my old posts like this one here by clicking on the "MENUS" tab at the top of this page.

Anyhoo - here's what's been up with us ...

The most exciting thing for our family right now is that my husband and I have decided to take on a HealthyWage as a challenge to lose weight and stick to it for the long(ish) haul.

This is totally new to my husband and it's the first time in his life that he had made any effort to lose weight, eat healthily or anything of the sort. He is actually sticking to it so well, and of course, has lost an insane amount of weight compared to me.

If you aren't familiar with HealthyWage, don't feel bad. I hadn't heard of it up until a month or so ago myself.

They are similar to Diet Bet, but with several more options for winning cash. For the purpose of keeping this as concise as possible, I'm just gonna talk about the one we are doing.

Basically, you pick an amount of weight you want to lose, a time frame that you want to lose it in, and the dollar amount that you are willing to bet on yourself. The minimum is 10% of your body weight and a 6-month time frame.

If you meet your goal, you not only get back the money that you paid in, but you also get a substantial amount of additional money back. For example, I did a 6-month bet, and bet 50 dollars per month. If I win, I will get $1,059. My husband did a $50 bet for a year and if he wins he gets $4,000!!!

How cool is that?! It's also been super motivating to have the financial incentive, plus doing it with my husband is actually kind of fun 🙃

If you want to check it out you can go HERE and figure out how much you could win. ((FYI - If you sign up through this link, I get an extra $40 added to my bet, but so do you!))

In other news, I quit my job!

Yep - you heard that right! After just 15 months of blogging, I was able to quit my job and I'm now a full-time blogger!!

I haven't really discussed this too much because I had some mixed emotions about it. I honestly could have quit much sooner, but hesitated because I actually enjoyed my job and my co-workers.

I worked in the rehab department of a long term care center and it just got to the point where working part-time wasn't serving my patients in the best way possible. I felt like I was only giving a half effort in every area of my life and something had to give.

I can with 100% certainty say that I absolutely made the right choice and am a little mad that I didn't make it sooner. I am SO much happier, less stressed and feel infinitely more productive.

I am still on a PRN list at my old job, which just means that they can call me to fill in for vacations or when they need extra help. This definitely helped me 'cut the cord' and will help me to maintain my state licenses and certifications.

I will be working for a week straight in May soooo ... I am going to keep repeating those last few lines to myself as I am honestly kind of dreading it 🤣

And last but not least, a cookbook update ...

If you've been following me for a bit, then you know that I am planning on writing a cookbook focused on kid and family friendly low carb recipes. My initial plan was to just put out an E-Book. But now that I am doing it, I really have my heart set on print.

I know that I personally wouldn't use an E-Book to cook from and don't feel it's the best way to serve you all or all the hard work that I have been putting into this project. I was approached by a publisher, but they only wanted me to focus on air-fryer recipes, and I don't want it to be that narrow. So I passed.

For now, I am going to keep working on my recipes and content for the book and see what happens. At this point, I would rather self-publish my book, the way I want it than compromise on the content or mission of the book.

So that's basically what's going on in my life these days 😊

Our meal plans these days are super simple and probably kind of boring. But it's what works for us.

My older kids eat lunch at school. They pack their lunch sometimes, and eat at school sometimes. My youngest has a family-style breakfast at preschool (where he is literally served the most garbage breakfast possible) but he eats the rest of his meals at home.

The snacks are just what I have available, and they usually build that list to make their lunches as well.

Links to the recipes for this weeks menu:

• Hot Brown Casserole
• Taco Seasoning and Street Corn Salad
• Cauli Rice Pilaf
• Lasagna Stuffed Chicken Breast
• Butter Crackers
• Keto Milano Cookies - This link won't be active until 4/18/19 when I post the recipe!

Links to the products I'm using this week:

• For the tacos and breakfast burritos, we use THESE low carb tortillas from Sam's Club. They taste great and are super affordable. If don't have a Sam's membership, I believe you can still buy them online. And if you want a Sam's membership you can sign up through THIS LINK to get a $20 gift card with your new membership. ((For full disclosure, I also get a $10 gift card when you sign up))
• Ketologie is mine and my husbands all-time favorite keto shake. It has perfect keto macros and you will feel like you are having a milkshake. I like chocolate, but my husband's favorite is strawberry.
• Keto Bars are another keto product that I absolutely love. Just like Ketologie, they have great keto macros and taste delish.
• Quest Bars are my go-to bar for my kiddos. They are just sweet enough for the kids to like them, but not so sweet that they will chow down when they aren't really hungry.