Happy Easter!!

Hello dear readers!

It has been quite awhile since I have been able to write a post! With Alex being sick, work, and classes, I have been a busy, busy bee! We wanted to update you all on our journey!

Let's just say this whole healthy lifestyle has been helping a ton!!! We have been eating better but also less! A few delicious recipes for some meal ideas:

1. Lemon Pepper Chicken with Veggies:
A chicken breast per person - heat up some butter in the frying pan first (I personally think the more butter the tender the chicken tastes), sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on both sides of the chicken while heating in a pan on medium high.
When the chicken is fully cooked I pour in some veggies (my faves are carrots and corn, but Al loves peas and broccoli) so that they cook in the butter and I season them however I'm in the mood for! And the best part about this is you can eat as many veggies as you want until you're full!

2. Sausage and rice
The awesome part about this is the healthy alternatives add so much flavor!!
We boil brown rice and add zuchini (I don't like zuchini as much, but Alex LOVES it)... I add onions sometimes.. But you can also leave it plain.
The sausage alternative... Honestly, Alex and I love beef so much. However, supposedly Italian sausage is supposed to be less "junky" so that is what we went with (I honestly do not know the difference in health, but I will be researching it this week). We cooked up several Italian sauseges in oil (or butter sometimes) and served it with the rice. This is also another meal you could add the veggies to.

3. Turkey Burgers
Alex and I are such big burger fans! Everytime we go out to eat he picks a burger (however we did choose healthier chicken and fish alternatives this most recent date). Might I note, I HATED beef SOOOO much before I dated him! He had me try burgers a lot, and he had me hooked!
This recipe is such a good alternative!
You need 1 lb ground turkey, a handful of diced onions, some parsley (fresh is best, but the seasoning is pretty good too), and a tiny bit of green onion. Mix them all together, roll into patty shapes, and then cook the way you would like! They are so yummy! We don't even use buns for them! They're really good served with brown rice or whole wheat pasta! Mmmmm!

So those are three meals we have tried. We have been getting more into shape as well. With Alex having the flu last week, he lost some weight (poor fella). But this weekend, when he felt better we started going out more! Which reminds me to tell you about my most recent addiction.

It's true.. I am addicted to icecream... And this is bad. VERY VERY BAD. Icecream means more sugar. More sugar means more anxiety. More anxiety means more depression. More depression means starting from the beginning..AGAIN. Ever since we stopped by that icecream place in Madison Heights called "Sweet Spot" I have had problems with this icecream addiction. We decided "hey, you're doing a whole lot better with sugar, you deserve a treat." Which means I got the snow cream. I won't lie in my blog. I am going to be so honest so you guys can understand my sugar problem. I had three snowcreams in one week. ONE WEEK. Poor Alex had to deal with my anxiety. I had no self control. At all. So finally, we decided it was a horrible mistake and limited myself to one icecream a week. We stopped going to Sweet Spot because it was just too unhealthy. So I thought "why not try dairy queen and see if they have a healthier alternative.." Yeah, that was stupid on my part. I ended up getting a chocolate iceream in a chocolate covered waffle cone. However, my anxiety wasn't too bad after that one. I had two of those. Granted, I did share all of these with Al, so it wasn't as much sugar as it could have been. Finally I was sick of the sugar. So we tried Sweet Frog! Such a great alternative if you get the right toppings! It's frozen yogurt not icecream! So now we go there once a week. And let me tell you, I have had way less anxiety this week!

Today we decided to go on a nice Sunday Easter stroll to balance all the food we ate. For any of you who know my mom, she loves to cook. We wanted to have a nice afternoon to ourselves for some downtime before this crazy week gets us too busy and preoccupied, so we went downtown. Alex suggested I take the camera with us so I can start getting into my photography again so I did. We really had a great time! Here's some pictures that we got!

 

Honestly, this one is my favorite. For anyone who knows me, they know my creativity. When I saw this it reminded me of the crazy junk all around us and the happiness we aim for. The shell being my ocean vacation Alex is taking me on this summer. The plants being that burst of happiness that springs up randomly. And the leaves being the old hard times we go through. Yeah some people love my thoughts, others not really. Do I care? No. I just LOVE looking at life in a different perspective.

This picture took me quite a while to capture, and it still didn't come out the way I wanted. The bee kept moving from flower to flower, and it was so heavy it was weighing down the flowers, so I couldn't quite get it in the frame. I did really like these bright flowers. The bee is hanging near the bottom flowers in case you can't find it.

I love the simplicity of the yellow flowers against the green grass. So soothing.

And last but not least, Al's favorite. We spent a good 10 minutes with this deer. There were four total. They were so calm and peaceful. I wonder how they could go from calmingly, grazing in a meadow, to anxiously running away from "predators." God's creation is so amazing.

So here was a little (or should I say long?) update on us! We have more journey updates coming soon! Those will be including our devotions and gardening ideas! And hopefully a better blog layout! Thanks so much for supporting us!