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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

A Day in the Life...

 

Hello!  My name is Jeanette Paradis and I am happy to welcome you to my blog!  I am currently a homeschooling mom who runs a home business and also leads women's ministry at my church.  Life is BUSY.  Ideally, I would have made it to the grocery store yesterday.  But that just didn't quite fit within our Tuesday.  Now it is Wednesday and my husband actually had a day off today.  He typically works Monday - Friday at a podiatry clinic near our home where he is involved with orthotics and specialty foot care needs.  So, a husband home for lunch = me trying to have something decent to put together for everyone!  I will admit that we ate lunch at 2:30 today!  Between a late breakfast, snacks, me out for two hours at a meeting and then starting our school day much later than usual... this is just how the day wound up taking place.  Oh well!  Life as a mom requires plenty of flexibility!

Clean Eating, Chicken Salad

So, back to putting together something quick, delicious and clean??

Thankfully I did have two leftover chicken breasts from when I had cooked chicken last night.  And some feta cheese.  I do love feta!  The feta totally brought this one all together.  And if it were not for a couple of limes, I would have been sunk!  Other than that, this combo just involved some cucumbers, tomatoes and a sprinkle of tortilla chips from the bottom of that bag!  Remember the whole needing-to-get-groceries thing??  But honestly, this was really quite good.  :)  I will make it again, "on purpose" next time!  I am sharing this here to illustrate that clean eating does not have to be complicated.  It really is all about keeping things simple.  Eat whole foods.  Skip many of the "extras".  The more that you move away from so many of the artificial foods, "real foods" are going to begin to actually taste quite good on their own!

Life has felt a bit up in the air lately.  We are thinking hard and praying about decisions in regards to schooling for the kids for next year.  We are looking into a local Montessori Charter School and have visited there and submitted our pre-enrollment forms.  Next Wednesday evening there will be a lotto drawing to see which kids are offered the openings in each of the classrooms.  I have enjoyed homeschooling.  It is A LOT to juggle each day.  No doubt about that.  We have 53 school days remaining for this school year and so my focus is very much in the here and now as we also keep an eye towards the future.  In the meantime, we are praying for wisdom and clear direction on which path to take when the time comes!  Earlier this morning I posted the following image on my FB page.  Trust is a choice and it is one that I have to make daily!  

 
We were able to go together as a family to tackle three stops this afternoon.  Wegmans, Sam's Club and Petsmart.  The parking lots are all dry and that is soooooo nice after our long winter here in Erie, PA.  Yesterday I had been trimming up a Club Pack of chicken from Wegmans.  I cooked some for dinner last night and then put the rest into a "marinade" unlike anything that I have ever used before!  It was simply some of the Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce.  This type of flavoring is a favorite for my husband.  And I like it as well!  The kids do not mind a bit of extra flavor, so that is helpful!

Clean Eating Buffalo Chicken, Buffalo Chicken

I pulled the chicken out of the marinade and browned it up in the skillet.  It is my own weird quirk that chicken must be browned first in order for me to handle it!  After browning, the chicken went to the oven to finish.  The other items which went onto our plates were simply some of the Wegmans Organic Baby Spinach which comes in the clam-shell container.  I just stand there in the store and go through a bunch of them to make sure that I am getting a spinach container with the least amount of moisture/condensation. I can not stand it to be anything but dry!  The green beans are just the "cleaned and cut" french green beans which are ready to go.  I happen to really enjoy my veggies raw and my family has become accustomed to this approach.  Easy enough!!  And the final item here is a special treat.  I try to remember to get a little something extra special on grocery day.  The kids look forward to this little tradition. Garlic knots from the bakery!  I did have two bites of one and then added it to my husband's plate.  That was just the right taste for me.  Tips on the chicken --- for the kids, I pull out the thickest chicken breast and slice that one for them.  It is less spicy, as it involves less exterior which is the most flavorful.  For my husband, I included an extra drizzle of wing sauce on his piece as I was placing everything in the oven.  This helps in making the same meal work well for everyone! 

As I was making my way through today's somewhat unusual schedule, I found myself so very thankful for one thing in particular.  My home business!  For one thing, I love the flexibility.  Plus I am thankful to be in a career where I get to truly help others every single day!  It is nice to go to the grocery story and not feel as though we are suffocating under the tightness of the budget.  Next week my sister and I will be hosting an information group which will be open to those who would like to learn more about coaching.  Let me know if this describes you!  

 

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