Spaghetti Pizza

This is one of my favorite meals to make because it seriously is very easy to make and takes me no time to make. Plus its one of my husbands favorite meals.
wish I had a picture, I will make this next week a post one! but seriously delicious
So here is the recipe:

Ingredients: 

Pre-made pizza dough

1lb of hamburger

Italian Seasoning (optional)

Basil (optional)

Pepper (optional)

Spicy Mushroom Pasta Sauce

1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 13x9 in baking dish.

Unroll pizza dough in baking dish, press it over the bottom and halfway up the sides.

bake for 7 min.

While crust bakes, sauté the beef (I add onions and basil and pepper in my meat but its optional). break it up while cooking.

Drain meat, rinse with hot water, drain out as much water as possible.

Turn out meat onto a paper towel-lined baking sheet and roll up the meat in the towel to blot up any moisture (this really helps!).

Pour meat into a bowel, add sauce (I add a little bit of Italian seasoning optional), and mix together.

Spread meat over the crust and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake until browned and the cheese melts, about 8 minutes.

Cooking for 2

Cooking for two people can be hard for anyone, especially for the cook in the relationship. However, I wanted to give you some tips I use, to help you get started.

So the first thing I struggled with was buying spices. They are really expensive and sometimes I am not sure if I am even going to use it again to be worth buying. So I began to look for cheaper ways to buy spices.

Smith's Grocery store has spices for $1 which to me seems like a great price and they are bottled and not in the little packets you see.

Winco is also a grocery store but they carry some items in bulk such as spices, I can get the amount I need and pay penny's for it! So look for stores that carry bulk items because they are usually cheaper to buy.

I also re-use my spice bottles and little jars from red chili's and so forth, for spices I buy in bulk. That also saves you money.

Cut recipes: When I am cooking for just my husband and I, I always cut the recipes in half, sometimes I still put the same amount of vegetables in, it just depends. But you really have to get into the mind set of cut recipe in half. I sometimes put sticky notes on the page to remind me. With spices I usually just start with a smaller amount and then work my way up.

Meat: This one can be a tricky one, however once you get the art down of separating and putting in the freezer it can be a benefit for you.

I usually only buy meat when it is on sell, such as Chicken I only buy when it is under $2 lb., and hamburger when it is under $3 lb. So basically when that happens I buy in bulk and stock up my freezer.

Hamburger I separate into 1/2 lb. sections. This makes it easy to grab and defrost and I can always add more meat if needed. In my opinion I feel for most meals you don't need more meat then vegetables in your food.

Chicken I separate also into two pieces but make sure they won't stick to each other. Sometimes the chicken breasts I buy are hug, so I can usually just use 1 piece of chicken for 2 people, I just defrost,  cut it up into cubes or cut it in half (depends on the type of meal).

Non-Meat Dinner: surprisingly my husband came up with this because he realized that we were eating a lot of meat for dinner. This has also helped me to step out of my comfort zone and look up new recipes with no meat and find really good substitutes for meat.

Quinoa is a great substitute for meat because of its bulkiness, learning how to cook and bake with it can be a great advantage (you can also get it at most bulk stores for a cheaper price).

A book I really like to use for these types of recipes is Eat to Live  this book was recommended to me by a doctor a couple of years ago and I have loved it, it teaches you the reason nutrition is so important. I don't use it as a weight lose program I just use the recipes in the back of the book which are amazing. (they also have a cook book out now)

Substitutes: I use substitutes a lot in my cooking. When I get a recipe that looks good and I don't know what some of the ingredients are or look like, I always look them up on the internet. If I go to the store and find that it is really expensive then I look up substitutes that match the recipe I am making. I usually have the substitute at home.

Something I have substituted before is chicken broth, I can use soy sauce and a few other ingredients as a broth and it works just as great.

Here is a link on substitutes for chick, beef and vegetable broth here

Cooking help: I use a slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, and my blender a lot and they save me time all the time.

I convert a lot of my recipes into slow cooker meals . All I do is take the ingredients I would cook together  in a pan and place in the slow cooker on low and let cook while I am at school or work and then I will cook noodles, or rice really quick and its all done.

Rice Cooker, I love my rice cooker a lot. this saves me a lot of time and mess by just putting it in the rice cooker. I also cook quinoa in my rice cooker. After cooking the rice or quinoa you can just add it to the meal when its done.

All you do is 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water.

 so if you wanted 2 cups of rice you would do 4 cups of water close the lid and press cook.

 I know there are more fancier rice cookers out there but mine is pretty basic and small just enough for 2 people.

You cook Quinoa just the same as rice 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water.
  here is a link (I just don't add salt)
P.S. one cup of Quinoa is enough to feed 4 to 8 people

Steamer: This I use when I just want vegetables as a side dish. I only steam my vegetables for 5 to 10 min because I don't want to steam all the nutrients out of the vegetables I just want them to be a little soft.

Blender: this is for my puree's and smoothies, and I also blend vegetables my husband doesn't like and put it in food he never notices and gets the nutrients he needs =)

Cook Books:
I love cook books and go to thrift stores and pick some up or I wait for sales at a book store and then go buy them for really cheap. These can be life savers and really help you think outside the box.

One of my favorite cook books is Fast Fixes with Mixes. They are really easy and have a variety of meals and even slow cooker meals.

Meal Planning: This is probably the dreaded day of the week for my husband however it really helps me to have a plan and know what I need to buy. Because if we don't have a plan I don't make dinner because I  have no idea what to make =).

So going through recipes, Pinterest, and cook books really helps us to have an idea of what each of us want rather then Roman and Mac and Cheese for dinner.

So figure out the day you are going grocery shopping and then write down your meal plan. I usually do it on Saturday every week or every two weeks.

Also make sure the list is some where you can see it, and don't be scared to adjust the meal plan, its just there as a guide for the week.

Don't be scared: Cooking is all about trial and error, so don't be scared of the ingredients.

I have learned how to cook with so many different vegetables since I have started all this. I also learned how to incorporate it into other meals.

Such as Leek's they kinda look like a piece of a palm tree when you first see them but they are very similar to a green onion. So I used the rest of them as an onion and they taste just the same.

Talk to people about cooking and collect different recipes.

Ad Shopping: If you don't get the sunday paper then try to pick up ads at your local grocery store that way you can see what they have on sale and in season. It is way cheaper to use vegetables and fruits that are in season rather then just buying food you know you like. It helps with that creativity in cooking =)

Cooking shows: I love watching Master Chef and you actually learn how to cut and cook certain food by just watching the show.

Recipes I use a lot: here are just a few of the recipes I use with links
Quinoa Tacos (just scroll to the bottom) Husbands favorite
Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
Slow cooker Sloppy Joe's 

Great place to find recipes:
Undressed Skeleton
Pinterest.com
Chart of what's in season

I have plenty of more recipes and if you have any questions or need help let me know =)

"No Slamming the Body"

The title of this post comes from a guest speaker in my class this wed. She teaches at ISU and explained to us some of the studies she found on how we as LDS women see and need to see our body. I really want to share with you and other's about this lesson because I really do feel that it has been life changing.

She asked us these 3 questions today, that she called the 3 questions that Influence Body Image

1. How do I view myself in the mirror?
2. How do I perceive how other people see me?
3. How do I feel in my own body?

Now as a reader of my blog I would  like you to truly answer these questions, either to yourself in a journal however you want to do it.

Okay now that you have probably overly critiqued yourself I want you to think about this question and write your answer on a separate sheet of paper.

• What does God think about your body?

Now I want you to look at your first piece of paper with the three question and if none of them are positive, NONE... I want you to take that list and tare it up, burn it shred it. What you want to do is never say those things to yourself again! NEVER!

Now you might be saying well I don't know what God thinks about my body? Here is the simplest answer you will ever get..... Pray and ask!  Thats it.. I am a firm believer in prayer and I love the time I get to talk to my Heavenly Father because I get to really hear what he thinks and helps me solve problems in my life. So try it be patient and maybe ask him everyday to give you that extra boost!  

Now as a Latter-Day Saint we are taught some Doctrine about the body which is:

1. That we are created in the image of God
2. That our body is a gift from God
3. We have to have a body to return to our Heavenly Father
4. We should consider our bodies as a temple

Now with that knowledge "Do you or I have the RIGHT to call  our body fat"? When it is a gift from God? I never thought of that questions until our guest speaker asked us that very question.

Why do we get up and look at ourselves in the mirror and say all the mean things? Why do we say we are fat, ugly, have wrinkles, not good enough. When in fact Our very own Heavenly Father doesn't think that?

Through this last week I have learned that the media is training us for failure and wants us to never feel good enough so we will tweak, stab, cut, eat and do anything to be what the media wants us to be. The media is teaching us to worship our body and to do what ever it takes to have the "perfect" body, clothes, shoes, and everything else. When in fact there is no perfect person on this earth, I know shocker right.

Now with Doctrine of the church we are able to have a plan and direction on what to do but sometimes we miss associate Doctrine with Tradition.

An example the speaker used was her niece was in a textile class in college and her assignment was to go to church dressed in a non-LDS look.

Okay so lets talk about "the LDS look"
Not LDS: Tattoo's, more then one earring, and tight fitting clothes
that's usually what we associate with dress and grooming.
(Now I am not saying people can't have these and be in the church, but generally if you have grown up in the church and haven't done these.)

Her niece stayed within doctrinal standards but just had a pok-i-dot shirt and striped skirt. As she went to church where people in her ward new her and talked to her frequently ended up not talking to her and giving her weird stares the whole time. People treated her differently.

Now what does that have to do with the body? Well we go through life worrying so much about how we look, and how others look that we forget that the people around us are just like us. We face the same problems, we feel left out, we feel like we don't fit in. When in fact it is our own mind, what the media is feeding us, and Satan tempting us to feel these things.

If we woke up each day and said wow I look great my body is amazing. Our attitude would be completely different. We would be able to enjoy the life around us and also feel great about ourselves. We have to change our paradigm of how we see ourself to how does God see me.

Our bodies are amazing and do so much for us. The fact that our heart and lungs monitor on their own with out us having to tell it to is amazing. Our fingers, thumbs and eye brows are amazing and can do so much. So why do we slam it with all the negative words that only hurt ourself.

My challenge is for you to wake up every morning say a prayer asking Heavenly Father what he thinks about your body, because you would like to know.

Second I want you to look in the mirror and tell yourself your body is amazing and believe in it!  Look at how you feel that day.

Also if you have a friend that is complaining about his/her body tell her/him "No slamming the body" and explain to her/him that the body is amazing.

We all have imperfections but those imperfection should never define who we are as a person

Courage to be a Women

So I am in a Women's Health Class this semester and I have loved every minute of it. My teach Sister Allen really is great at teacher her students to be proud to be a women and not ashamed of it, whether its checking your self for breast cancer or even standing up for women's rights. Now I am not saying to become a extreme feminist. What I am saying is it not a bad thing to be a women. Women have come such a long ways since the 1800's and the world continues to change and not necessarily for the better. We have been watching videos on women and how the entertainment industry portrays women as objects.

The entertainment industry is diminishing the true beauty of women and causing women to try to become the impossible. Even models don't look like they do in ads. So lets talk!

Ask yourself these questions
What do I not like about myself?
What are my flaws?

Now ask:
What are my strengths?
How does Heavenly Father see me as his Daughter?
What do I do everyday to feel positive about myself?

This world throws so much at us from the time that we are born that we are becoming morbid into what the world wants us to become. However I am here to tell you that you are beautiful, and worth more then anything in this world. You have the power to accomplish your dreams and you have the power to achieve all that you want to achieve. So why let Satan get into your head and tell you, you are not good enough, you cant do anything, and your dreams will never come true.

Lets first talk about modesty.... Ooo the dreadful word for some.. think about what first comes to mind when you hear that? Maybe old granny, dresses to the wrist and ankles, and of course nothing that looks good. Okay I know how you feel. When I was getting married I thought my clothes were modest however I soon found out that they are a little short or the neckline is a little low.. talk about melt down, I couldn't even find a dress to leave my reception in with out having a melt down. However I have learned to adjust and that I need to look a little harder..

Now you might be wondering why is this so important. I will tell you that how we dress each and every day, for what ever event, sends a message to women around us and even little girls. Modesty should be a sign of confidence and self-worth.

Here is an example of a women who inspires women all over the world Audrey Hepburn she is an example to all. She shows us that you can be beautiful and in fashionable by being modest.

Some scientific prof is the study done in Princeton University by lead student Susan Fiske. She confirmed that when women are seen by men in bikin's they are dehumanized and seen as objects such as tools. "Men were also more likely to associate images of sexualized women with first-person action verbs such as "I push, I grasp, I handle,". 

I found this study here if you want to read more its quiet interesting!

I also was able to watch a video on a very inspiring women and her effort to show women that there are ways to be modest and more fashionable at the same time:

The evolution on Swimsuits

Jean Kilbourn is also a leading lady in trying to get the word out there of how we are affected by the media today even as young girls. How we are seen as just objects in advertisement or that we need to be "sexy" to be considered pretty. The media in reality teaches us that we will never achieve perfection and that we should look down on ourselves for it.

Here is a short version of one of her discussion on how advertisement is changing women for the worst

Killing Us Softly 4 

So I hope through these examples that you can find the confidence to hold your head up high and to be proud to be a WOMEN!!! To be confident in how we dress, talk, and act!

I end this message on a spiritual note!

Courage

Have the courage to be strong and not fall into the sins of the world, but to live a higher law.

I love you all and please share this if you believe in what I have shared =) 

The Meaning of Education

So growing up I have always been told you need to go to college you will love it and it will be very rewarding. However I have hit a point in my college life where I didn't feel what I was doing was what I really wanted to do. My husband and I have been praying about it and I have decided that I am not on the right track to where I should be going. So what now, do I just quite college or do I create a new goal? The answer is to make a new set of goals. People always ask me what I like to do and I always seem to answer "I like to party". You may laugh but it is true, I love putting parties together and celebrating life. However one of my other passions is to help people change for the better. So I have decided to get my associates and then become a fitness instructor for a gym. This is something I love to do and I get to do both of my passions Party and Support others.
Now some of you may not agree with this decision and may think oh she is just giving up. That is what I thought for the longest time, but as I have prayed and took counsel from my wonderful husband. He told me that I can still be considered educated even just being a fitness instructor. We want our children to know that education needs to be important in their lives, but we want them to find and do the things they love. Education doesn't have to mean the amount of degrees you have. We should be living lives that are full of constant learning and educating ourselves on the things we love and are curious about.

So after this fall I will be graduated with my Associates and then moving on to getting certified as a Fitness Instructor. Call me crazy but I am so excited about this decision and can't wait for what the future holds for me.


Okay now onto the Yummy food I have been cooking
Last night I made this delicious Creamy Broccoli Casserole

Here is the ingredients
2 chicken breasts Shredded chicken (either boiled or baked in the crock pot)
1to 2 cans Cream of Mushroom
Broccoli (fresh or frozen)
and shredded cheese

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven 350
2. Make sure you cook the chicken and shred it
3. Then just combine all ingredients in a bowl
4. Place in a baking pan
5. put shredded cheese on top 
6. Then put in the oven for 25 min.

Its really that easy, you don't need to add any spices it taste delicious.
I hope you enjoy and take the challenge to do what you love
Shanel

Some Healthy Tries

So I have been seeing lots of recipes for Quinoa, and it happens that my husband really wants to have meals with out meat. I couldn't believe I heard that when I did. We have some kind of meat in our dinner every night. However meat is a little expensive so we are trying some alternatives. We had Quinoa taco's, they were really good and here are somethings I learned. 1st you can cook Quinoa in a rice cooker, however make sure your rinse the Quinoa before cooking. If you don't have a thin strainer put a paper towel in the bottom of your strainer it should rinse the Quinoa and help you not to lose it. 2nd 1 cup of Quinoa can make enough for 4 to 8 people. This is something good to know because it's just my husband and I so we have lots of left overs. 3rd it took only 1 taco to fill me up. 4th I reduced a lot of the spices, because I am still trying to figure out my spice tolerance haha so cutting the spices in half was the perfect amount. It had great taste but wasn't killing my mouth. 5th I didn't have chicken broth and so I looked up substitutes, so I used soy sauce (The recipe is near the end for soy sauce on the link)! It was great and didn't take away from the flavor. My husband really enjoyed the Quinoa and went back for 3rds! So it was a hit and we will have it again for sure. I have been working out everyday this week and I can really notice a difference in my endurance and body. My running seems easier and I am beginning to really enjoy working out. It really helps me to stay focused and feel like i am being motivated. I haven't watch any of my t.v. shows in 2 weeks! I am sure i have a lot to catch up on. But I almost don't miss it. T.v. to me seems to just take up all my time and I feel so unmotivated to do anything. I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend, I know I will be!

Monday Start up!

Okay okay so its been a week since I posted, I am sorry for not giving you updates and encouragement through the week! However I will tell you the changes I have made since this journey has helped me a lot. So Easter was about a week ago and my husband and I asked one of our really good friends if they would go down to Utah with us to go to the Festival of Colors! We had never been and thought it would be fun and give us some time in the sun. So we went down Friday and stayed in Salt Lake City for a while, I really love going downtown it reminds me of Houston Texas. Any way we went to the new City Creek Mall which is the most clean, and nice mall I have ever been to and its all outside around the city. I love it. Well we got to Robbie's grandparents house and settled in. We woke up the next day to go to the Festival of Colors, lets just say we learned not to park by the free way and take the shuttle because it took forever to get to the Hindu Temple. So I bet some of you are wondering what the Festival of Colors is? Well its the celebration of spring and all the colors it brings with it. Ever since I have been to Turkey and Greece 2 years ago I have grown to love other cultures, and learning about them. This celebration was full of color and fun, you buy these packets of colors which is cornstarch, died and scented... I think they could hold off on the scented part but that's just me. It was a lot of fun though. We then went back to Gma and Gpa's house to clean up and take a little nap. After that we got to go play disc Golf. This is a sport introduced to me by my wonderful husband. We played a lot last summer when we were in Ohio, and I began to get really good. I was a little rusty that day but I turned out pretty good. After Disc Golf we went to Wal-mart to prepare for Easter the next day and get some food and some things for our Easter baskets. As we put everything away and the house we headed to Orem to spend time with Robbie's Uncle Brad and Aunt Wendy. We got to eat and play games and just spend time with family. I really love that we at least have some family close because I go through times where I really miss having family around. The next day was Easter, the great thing about going to Utah, is that there is a church almost every block. So we found a church and went to scarament, it is always great to hear about the Atonement and how important it is to each of us. I really love Easter time because it reminds us of the new season, and new beginnings we are not perfect but with Jesus's example we can sure try as hard as we can. So now that I have caught up on all that, this last friday we sold our car in a week of putting it up and for a really good price. We are now trying so hard to get a newer car. We have almost everything set up but just need the dealer to get one document for it to be a go... Patients is a virtue right?... Well Robbie has been working so hard and we have been praying on our decisions and asking the Lord to help us and he has sure answered our prayers. I am so grateful and can see the blessings. Hopefully today everything works out and we can run down to Utah and get our car =)... Being a grown up is really scary sometimes but I trust in the lord and know he is mindful of our needs. Yesterday was our 1 year Anniversary, people always tell me it's the hardest. I have to say it was the best year of my life, life with Robbie is just so much better then not... He is the greatest husband and is really patient with me. I need that sometimes. We spent the day watch conference, playing games, making dinner and robbie making our initials out of cards. It was a perfect Sunday. Okay so my friend and I have been going through ups and downs with our work outs just because of sickness and traveling going on.. So this week we are actually going to do different things on the days we don't go running so we get more out of our workouts. Today I did some beginning Yoga, I really am not a fan of yoga but i have been inspired by some of my friends who do it. So I want to push through the hard part and hopefully see some results and less back pain. Mondays are always the hardest to start but once you get going it really helps and makes your day a lot better. So get up and go do something, stretch, lift weights, do some squats.. Whatever but once you do it I know you will feel better and that bad day will not be as bad =)... Good luck