Super Easy Cheater's Sugar-Free Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

I left the generous gift of spinach that a friend gave me at their house, but still wanted to go ahead and make this!

Ingredients
2 cubes frozen spinach - reheated according to packet directions
1 small tub of smooth ricotta cheese
Cannelloni tubes to fit your small baking dish
Homemade sugar free tomato sauce (recipe to come)
Parmesan cheese

Mix the ricotta and spinach together in a small bowl
Use a small zip-lock bag with the corner cut out to make a piping bag. Fill with spinach mixture and pipe into tubes, laying them flat in your dish when each is done.
Cover with tomato sauce
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and pop in over until pasta is cooked through (depends on size of dish - around 35-40 is a good guide) on 200 degrees C.

Enjoy some now, some for dinner and some in the freezer for later :)

ACTION PLAN Steps 1 and 2

Ok, I am being brave and I am putting everything out on the line! Here is step one in my ACTION PLAN.

1. Know Your Goal

Know what it is you are setting out to achieve. Write down your goals, and show them to someone else. Its important not to hide what you are trying to achieve.

SMART Goals are much more easily achieved. For more info on SMART goals download this document www.adelaide.edu.au/wpdn/mentoring_goalsetting.doc

2. Set a starting point. 

You need to know where you have come from and where you would like to be. 

Below are my stats from the 12 week fitness program I am part of. This is the initial stats. 

(I don't remember turning 27 yet. ... I think I am only 26 still... but its only a couple of weeks regardless.)

Ok, so there are steps 1 and 2. Have a go at setting your steps, share them in the comments section below or post a link to your own blog. 

Age: 27

Height: 172

Measurements	Initial	Midway	Final	Overall Loss
Body Fat %	40.6
Weight	81.9
Right Bicep	29
Left Bicep	29
Chest	102.5
Waist	94
Hips	104
Right Thigh	60
Left Thigh	58

               

Fitness Scores	Initial	Midway	Final	Overall Improvement
Step ups	86
Push Ups	8
Sit ups	1
6 min shuttle run	56
7 Phase Plank	1

Absent!

ACTION PLAN UPDATE:

I apologise for my absentness over the last week - I sprained my back and sadly blogging fell off the list of things I wanted to do!

BUT - I will be back in the next 24 hours to get back on track with our ACTION PLANS!!

Stay Tuned!!

Time for Action!

Well, Spring is here and its time for me to get serious about looking after myself. 

I've spent a year and a half being quite lazy and eating whatever I want, to my own detriment. And now its time for ACTION!!  

I have a plan for the next 12 weeks and beyond.  And I thought as a way to stay accountable to myself, I would post about it each week. I am calling it THE ACTION PLAN. 

In my Action Plan, I will be joining a local fitness transformation boot camp to loose 15kg.  I have also decided to withdraw from sugar completely (even though my one week challenge was a bit of a disaster!). So Fridays will become Fitness Friday and Saturdays will become Sugar-Free Saturday on my blog. Posting my progress will be a way of keeping myself on track - but feel free to encourage me if you like!!  he he he... Even better, you might want to join me for a 12 week ACTION PLAN of your own. 

It might be:

• Giving up a habit like eating chocolate or drinking Coke everyday
• Going for a walk or run 3 times a week
• Establishing a quiet time each day...

The list is endless and feel free to be as creative as you like!!  Leave a comment below to let us know what you are committing to for 12 weeks so we can cheer each other on! 

This week's blog plan: 

Monday: Getting started on an ACTION PLAN

Tuesday: Thanksgiving Tuesday

Wednesday: Tools of the Trade: Resources to help you with an ACTION PLAN of your own

Thursday: See my BEFORE PHOTOS!!

Friday: Fitness Friday - an update on my fitness progress

Saturday: Sugar-Free Saturday - an update on my withdrawal from fructose

So - what will your ACTION PLAN be?

 

Reflecting on the Completing Him Challenge

If you are here often you will know I participated in Courtney's Completing Him Challenge over Winter (ok, it was summer in the northern hemisphere!). 


Each week Courtney set a range of challenges aimed at encouraging us to think about our husbands and plan for meeting their needs in a variety of ways. 


I really enjoyed the entire series. Being intentional about our marriage, creating time together and doing things just for him, were wonderful ways to strengthen my love for him and to show him how I feel!!


Some of the highlights for me were reflecting on our dating and wedding stories. It was wonderful to remember all the little details! 


Praying for him for a whole week, on things that he himself chose, was wonderful, and a real insight in to the things he considers important in our lives together. Likewise, asking him for his priorities for my time was a big eye opener for me!  I was equally blessed when he asked me for my priorities in return.  I definitely think that using this priority list has helped us to get along better and to avoid conflict. I would highly recommend it! 


Overall, our marriage has never been in a better place. Part of this I think was due to the challenge, but the majority has really come down to us trying to treat each other the way God intended.  In reality, we are selfish people. But taking the time to plan how we want our marriage to be has been a wonderful way to improve the overall quality of our time together. 


So what's next? 


I don't want things to get stale. So I am continuing to plan how to improve our marriage. The first step is prayer. Lots of prayer. I am taking all of September to work through Stormie's The Power of a Praying Wife again, as this book has really helped to enrich my prayer times and allowed me to focus on praying for my husband.
We are trying to plan ahead for regular date nights (something we have struggled to do for a long time).  As money for outings is not so available, we are working our way through this list. 




How do you plan to enrich your relationships and family life?

Keeping Home

I could have written Brittany's post myself! So I thought I would respond by replying in kind with a post of my own to kick-start my blog once again! Brittany at the High-Heeled Housewife posed this question: 


Do you work?  How do you balance your career with your home?  Where do you draw the boundaries, so it's clear that your home comes first?


I work too, and the balance is something I struggle with constantly. At times I let the little things go, so that I can cope with the big things, but there are days when even that doesn't work!


I am very lucky to have a very helpful husband who is happy to share the workload around the house at this point in our lives, but I still feel that the 'running' of the household is down to me.  


There is no easy solution here, but some things that I have found that help me are:

• I do not bring work home. Ever.
  I have worked from home for a couple of days when I was contagious with a virus recently, but after 'work hours' I put it all away and focused on being home.  Occasionally this means I need to stay back at work to keep on top of things, but once I am home, I am home.
  
• Very well organised cupboards - it sounds silly but it really helps if everything has a place to be. This makes tidying much much easier and allows Mr. Awesome to put away/find things easily too. As soon as my cupboards get out of control, so does the rest of the house.
  
• Several nights at home each week to catch up on tasks and to spend time in the house. One of the great pointers I learnt from Elizabeth George's Life Management for Busy Women, is BE AT HOME. I have always been a person with lots on and places to be. But as soon as I do that 4 or 5 nights a week, its easy to feel snowed under. So we let a few things go so that we could both be at home more often. And it works!
  
• I have after hours meetings I regularly need to attend for work. I made the decision to make them all on the same night of the week this year (i.e. Thursday nights) so that it becomes a more regular part of our rhythm and is easier to plan around.
  
• Pray. I don't get things right. Lots of the time. But when I pray about our home, and our marriage, lots of things seem to run more smoothly. 

What are your tips for balancing home and life?